Lewis Martin Movies

Based on the story "The Horla" by Guy de Maupassant, this grim low-budget potboiler stars Vincent Price as Simon Cordier, a ruthless magistrate in 19th-century Paris who becomes possessed by the malevolent spirit (or "horla") of a condemned murderer whom Cordier was forced to kill in self-defense. Driven by the madman's ghost to continue his pattern of brutal crimes, Cordier comes to the realization that the only way he can purge the violent demon from his soul is to immolate himself in a blazing pyre. Though the riveting Price (whose very presence can enliven even the most dismal of horror duds) does an admirable job as the tormented Cordier, he is unable to bear the ponderous weight of this tedious production. Although a parallel between the callousness of Cordier's office and the insensate evil of his crimes would have provided an interesting subtext, the script forfeits this potential, relying instead on a pat, self-righteous finale with religious overtones. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi

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, Rovi

For years, vicious gunslinger Doggie Kramer (Jack Lambert) has bullied the citizenry of a small town. Unfortunately for Kramer, his most recent shootout has left him gravely wounded. When it becomes obvious that the now-emboldened townsfolk, led by the brother of Kramer's latest victim, plan to enact a violent vengeance against their former tormentor, Kramer hires Paladin (Richard Boone) to escort him safely to Santa Fe. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Thanks to the false testimony of freight owner Will Stanhope (Lewis Martin), Ed Stacy (Ed Nelson) was wrongly sent to prison. Now that Stacy has been paroled, Stanhope hires Paladin (Richard Boone), ostensibly to protect him from the ex-convict's wrath. But since Stanhope had previously hired Paladin to help him imprison Stacy the first time around, the erudite gunslinger suspects that it is not Stanhope whose life is truly in peril. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A veritable honor roll of famed western heroes and villains appears in the fanciful oater Badman's Country. It all begins when Sheriff Pat Garrett (George Montgomery) draws up plans to lure the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang, headed by Butch Cassidy (Neville Brand) and the Sundance Kid (Russell Johnson) into a trap. To do this, he enlists the aid of fellow peacekeepers Wyatt Earp (Buster Crabbe), Bat Masterson (Gregory Walcott) and Buffalo Bill Cody (Malcolm Atterbury). By the time everyone is introduced, the film is half over. No matter: Badman's Country is redeemed by a truly impressive climactic gun duel. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Captain Steve Williams (Gary Merrill) is piloting a commercial airliner across the Atlantic when he loses two engines in mid-ocean. With the real prospect of ditching at sea, we see his dedication and perfectionism at work, as he tries to safeguard his plane and passengers -- those attributes have made him one of the best men in his field, but have also alienated most of the people around him, including his wife (Nancy Davis) and young son (Kim Charney). As Williams faces the life-and-death decisions in front of him, he, the crew and passengers try to come to peace with their consciences and their respective pasts. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

In this musical, an ex-fan dancer leaves the burlesque to start a new in a small town with her two teenage children. There she soon becomes one of the most respected women in town; she also falls in love with the school principal. Unfortunately, her happiness disintegrates when her past is revealed. Fortunately, the townsfolk respect her too much to hold it against her. Songs include: "We're on Our Way", "Why Can't I?", "Is It Love?", "I'd Rather Be", "My Calypso Baby" (Paul Dunlap), and "Teenage Cutie" (Dick Kallman, sung by Luis Amando). ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

The debate still rages as to whether Alfred Hitchcock's 1956 remake of The Man Who Knew Too Much is superior to his own original 1934 version. This two-hour remake (45 minutes longer than the first film) features more stars, a lusher budget, and the plaintive music of Bernard Herrmann (who appears on-camera, typecast as a symphony conductor). Though the locale of the opening scenes shifts from Switzerland to French Morocco in the newer version, the basic plot remains the same. American tourists James Stewart and Doris Day are witness to the street killing of a Frenchman (Daniel Gelin) they've recently befriended. Before breathing his last, the murder victim whispers a secret to Stewart (the Cinemascope lens turns this standard closeup into a truly grotesque vignette). Stewart knows that a political assassination will occur during a concert at London's Albert Hall, but is unable to tell the police: his son (a daughter in the original) has been kidnapped by foreign agents to insure Stewart's silence. The original script for Man Who Knew too Much was expanded and updated by John Michael Hayes and Angus McPhail. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The MGM melodrama These Wilder Years marked the first onscreen pairing of Hollywood stars James Cagney and Barbara Stanwyck. Lonely middle-aged businessman Steve Bradford (Cagney) returns to his old town in hopes of finding the son he fathered 20 years earlier. Choosing his career over marriage and family, he got a girl pregnant and she gave the baby up for adoption. He goes to an orphanage ran by Ann Dempster (Barbara Stanwyck) to find out information about his son. They are attracted to each other, but she refuses to release the confidential files that could help him. He hires a lawyer, James Rayburn (Walter Pigeon), and proceeds to sue the adoption agency. Though he loses the case in the climactic courtroom scene, Steve ends up finding his son on his own, but he decides it's too late to forge a relationship. Instead, Ann introduces him to pregnant teenager Suzie (Betty Lou Keim), who needs his help. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

Anyone who thinks that tabloid journalism is an aberration of the 1980s should take a look at the 1956 release Slander. The film stars Van Johnson as a happily married, well respected TV kiddie show host who becomes the subject of an expose' from a Confidential style magazine. The publisher (Steve Cochran) has no qualms about ruining lives so long as it boosts circulation; nor is he concerned about libel suits, since everything he prints is a matter of record. The exposure of Johnson's minor-league criminal past leads indirectly to the death of his young son. But it isn't Johnson who metes out retribution to the publisher; instead, the avenging angel is the publisher's mother (Marjorie Rambeau), who kills her son rather than allow him to ruin more lives. Sincerely motivated, Slander is nonetheless as cheap and tawdry as the magazines it attacks. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

With his movie career fading in 1955, Bob Hope was amenable to writer/director Mel Shavelson's suggestion that Hope try something different. The Seven Little Foys was the first of Hope's two "straight" biopics (the second was 1956's Beau James). Though not completely abandoning his patented persona, Hope does an admirable job of impersonating legendary Broadway song-and-dance man Eddie Foy, right down to the soft-shoe shuffle and affected lisp. A successful "single" in vaudeville, Foy meets and marries lovely Italian songstress Madeleine Morando (Milly Vitale). The union results in seven children, moving the Foys' priest to comment "we're running out of Holy water" after the seventh baptism. Hardly an ideal family man, Foy leaves Madeleine and her sister Clara (Angela Clarke) behind in their Connecticut home to raise the kids, while he rises to spectacular career height. Returning home after attending a testimonial for George M. Cohan (James Cagney, who played this unbilled cameo on the proviso that Hope turn over Cagney's salary to charity), Foy discovers that his wife has died of pneumonia. Months pass: Foy sulks in his rambling house, while his seven kids run roughshod. Foy's manager (George Tobias) suggests that the entire family be assembled into a vaudeville troupe called The Seven Little Foys. Though the kids are profoundly bereft of talent, the act gets by on its charm, and before long Foy is a bigger success than ever. But when Foy and the kids are booked into the Palace on Christmas Day, Aunt Clara decides that the kids are being cruelly exploited, and arranges for the authorities to arrest the act on charges of violating a state law barring children from singing and dancing. The authorities decide to drop the charges when the kids rally around their father, declaring their genuine love for him--but the deciding factor is a quick demonstration that the kids can't sing or dance to save their lives! The Seven Little Foys is a standard Hollywood whitewash job, emphasizing Eddie Foy's virtues (including his on-stage heroism during the infamous Iroquois Theatre fire of 1903) and soft-pedaling or ignoring his faults (e.g. his capacity for alcohol). Wisely, the scenes between Bob Hope and the seven children playing the Little Foys (including Father Knows Best's Billy Gray, The Real McCoys' Lydia Reed and Leave It to Beaver's Jerry Mathers) are refreshingly free of cloying sentiment. Also, Hope is a good enough natural actor to convince us that he deeply cares for his children without gooey effusions of emotion. The film's hands-down highlight is the "challenge dance" between Foy (Bob Hope) and Cohan (James Cagney)--a lasting testament of the superb terpsichorean talents of both men. The Seven Little Foys was narrated by Eddie's son Charley Foy, a fine comedian in his own right. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

With the exception of the brilliant The Court Jester, Knock on Wood must rank as the best of Danny Kaye's movie vehicles. Capitalizing on the star's recent successful engagement in London, the film casts Kaye as a neurotic American ventriloquist performing in England and Europe. In a parody of the 1946 thriller Dead of Night, Kaye is unable to control the words coming out of his dummy, resulting in a near-nervous breakdown. On the advice of his manager (David Burns), Kaye seeks out the help of a psychiatrist, who turns out to be beautiful Mai Zetterling. But first, he heads to a local repair shop to pick up one of his dummies. What Kaye doesn't know is that a set of stolen blueprints for a top-secret weapon have been secreted into his dummy's head. Before he knows what's happening, our hero is up to his ears in spies, counterspies, and corpses. Falsely accused of murder, Kaye spends the rest of the film adopting one disguise after another to elude both the authorities and the various enemy agents roaming about. Filled to overflowing with musical and comedy highlights, Knock on Wood includes the famous "under the table" bit wherein Kaye finds himself literally between two warring spy factions, and a climactic ballet sequence reminiscent of (and superior to) the comic-opera finale of Kaye's Wonder Man (1945). And of course, the audience is treated to the tongue-twisting patter songs written for Kaye by his wife Sylvia Fine. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi