Vera Miles Movies
Beauty contest winner Vera Ralston made a smattering of industrial films before beginning her Hollywood career in 1952. While making films at Republic studios, Ralston changed her name to avoid being confused with Republic's reigning queen Vera Hruba Ralston; "Miles" was the last name of her first husband. At first cast as a bland ingenue, she proved herself capable of conveying neurotic hysteria in The Charge at Feather River (1953), playing a white girl kidnapped by Indians who was violently resistant to being returned to her real family. She met her second husband, Gordon Scott, while filming Tarzan's Hidden Jungle (1954). With her work in John Ford's The Searchers (1955), she graduated to big-budget productions. During the latter half of the 1950s, she was under contract to Alfred Hitchcock, who was impressed by the "still waters run deep" element of her performances. She played a delusional rape victim in "Revenge," the very first episode of TV's Alfred Hitchcock Presents; she was cast as Henry Fonda's beleaguered wife in Hitch's The Wrong Man (her final scene is a knockout!); and, of course, she was seen as the sister of the ill-fated Janet Leigh in Psycho, a role she flamboyantly reprised in the 1982 sequel Psycho 2. While she never quite attained full film stardom, Miles kept extremely busy in both theatrical releases and television. During the 1960s and 1970s, she was regarded as a "good luck charm" by TV producers: if she guest-starred in the pilot episode of a potential series, chances are that series would sell (among those sold were the aforementioned Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Asphalt Jungle, The Eleventh Hour, The Fugitive, Court Martial, The Outer Limits, I Spy, Gentle Ben, Cannon and Owen Marshall, Counsellor at Law). She continued to make occasional appearances until the 1995 feature Separate Lives, in which she costarred with James Belushi; afterward, she retired from acting. As of this writing, Vera Miles is still married to her fourth husband, sound engineer and mixer Bob Jones. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1975
This courtroom drama was originally the pilot for the TV series McNaughton's Daughter and centers upon two attorneys, a father and his daughter, as they try a philanthropist charged with murder. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1974
- G
James Garner stars as a genial cowboy in this wholesome slice of Disney family fare. Garner is Lincoln Costain, a cowboy in the 1850s who finds himself shanghaied and shipwrecked on a Hawaiian island. He runs into luckless widow Henrietta MacAvoy (Vera Miles) and helps her turn her struggling potato farm into a prosperous cattle ranch. But evil land baron Bryson (Robert Culp) wants all the land for himself and he holds Henrietta's mortgage. Lincoln had been planning to leave Hawaii and return to his Texas home, but decides to stay and help the beautiful widow fend off Bryson's land-grabbing greed. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Garner, Vera Miles, (more)
- 1974
This made-for-TV horror film stars Robert Stack and Vera Miles as a couple whose new home in the country turns out to be inhabited by evil spirits. Director John Llewellyn Moxey (Horror Hotel) manages to raise his share of small-screen chills in this low-key story co-starring L.Q. Jones and Herb Edelman. Fans of the haunted-house subgenre should note that the film was co-written by Sandor Stern, who would go on to script the similar Amityville Horror and direct its third sequel. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- 1974
The Underground Man was the pilot film for a series based on Ross MacDonald's private eye hero Lew Archer (the source of Paul Newman's film appearances as "Lew Harper"). Most of the elements of the factory-approved MacDonald formula are put into effect here: An old flame, a seemingly cut-and-dried case leading to sinister complexities, dark family secrets, ecological rape, and the inadvertent solving of previously unsolved crimes. Archer (Peter Graves) is hired to rescue the kidnapped son of his former love, and the cycle begins. This particular pilot didn't sell, but there would be a separately produced Archer series late in 1974 starring Brian Keith. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1974
The science of "cryogenics" forms the basis of the made-for-TV Live Again, Die Again. Donna Mills plays a young woman who dies of rheumatic fever. At her deathbed request, Mills' body is frozen, in hopes of reviving her in the future. Thirty years later, Mills awakens, returning to the not-so-open arms of her doddering husband (Walter Pidgeon), her spiteful daughter (Vera Miles) and her mixed-up son (Mike Farrell). No, this was not produced by Walt Disney Studios. Adapted by Joseph Stefano from a novel by David Sale, Live Again, Die Again first aired February 16, 1974. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
In this comical Disney western, a cavalry rider goes AWOL in the midst of a raid to save the lives of a band of Indian women and children. He then takes off across the New Mexican desert astride a camel. En route, he meets a young white boy who was raised by an Indian. The Indian is trying to find his tribe and so enlists the aid of the wayward soldier. Later they encounter a widow and her daughter. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1973
Several familiar faces dot the cast of the made-for-TV Runaway! The scene is a treacherous mountainside, where several skiers have come to...well, ski. The mountain can only be reached by train-and that train is the "runaway" of the title. Just so no one would miss the point, the film was retitled Runway Train when released theatrically abroad. Ben Johnson, Ben Murphy, Ed Nelson, Darlen Carr, Lee H. Mongomery, Martin Milner, Vera Miles, Ray Danton and Bing Russell (Kurt's dad) are among the rescuers and rescuees. Runaway! first aired September 29, 1973. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1972
In this thriller a race-car driver develops mysterious psychic powers that allow him to warn people of impending danger. No one believes him until he meets an understanding parapsychologist who helps race off to warn those he saw in his terrifying vision. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leonard Nimoy, Susan Hampshire, (more)
After an outlaw (Sam Elliott) is brought to justice, he begins to work on the sheriff's wife (Vera Miles) and eventually gets her to help him escape from prison. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- 1972
The Great American Tragedy is a melodrama about an aerospace engineer and his family who struggle to survive after he suddenly loses his job. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- 1971
Although advertised as a "reunion" of former I Dream of Jeannie stars Barbara Eden and Larry Hagman, the made-for-TV A Howling in the Woods is actually a vehicle for Eden, with Hagman contributing a glorified cameo role. The scene is a remote wooded area in Nevada, where disillusioned housewife Liza Crocker (Eden) has arrived for a solitary camping trip. It so happens that Liza's "sanctuary" is located near the small and cloistered town where she was born -- a town that does not necessarily want to have her back. As Liza's husband, Eddie (Larry Hagman), searches for her in hopes of a reconciliation, the heroine is terrorized by the mournful sound of a howling dog, which triggers painful and frightening memories that she had hoped were long, long buried. Based on a novel by Velda Johnston, the underrated and almost unbearably suspenseful A Howling in the Woods debuted November 11, 1971, on NBC. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1971
Existing evidence suggests that an elusive and very prolific thief known as the Golden Gate Bandit is responsible for the murder of policeman Jack Campbell (Stuart Randall). But Ironside (Raymond Burr) suspects that someone else is using the thief's crime spree to cover up their own homicidal activities. Characters essential to the action are the cop's widow Gloria Campbell (Vera Miles) and a lifelong loser named Christopher (Brandon De Wilde, in one of his final TV appearances). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1971
Pattern of Morality is the syndicated title of the made-for-TV Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law. Arthur Hill stars as Owen Marshall, a crusading attorney, who defends hippie Bruce Davidson, accused of murdering a wealthy housewife. Though all characters and names are fictitious, the film was clearly inspired by the Tate-LaBianca killings of 1969. The supporting cast includes Joseph Campanella as the husband of the murdered woman, William Shatner as the DA, and Dana Wynter as the judge. First telecast September 12, 1971, Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law served as a preview for the series of the same name, which premiered on September 16 and ran until August 24, 1974. Carried over the pilot film were Arthur Hill as Marshall and future producer/director Joan Darling as Marshall's secretary Frieda Krause. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1971
William Conrad stars as corpulent private eye Frank Cannon in this 2-hour pilot for the subsequent Cannon series. He responds to a plea for assistance from ex-flame Vera Miles (an actress who was in practically every pilot film made between 1965 and 1975). She is the prime suspect in the murder of her husband, and has also become the target of vicious anonymous phone calls. Cannon's investigation unearths a hotbed of small-town corruption. Cannon was first telecast March 26, 1971. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Conrad
- 1971
Vera Miles guest-stars as Ben Cartwright's longtime friend April Christopher. While visiting the Ponderosa, April is bitten by a rabid wolf. As the story progresses, both April and Ben must come to grips with the agony April is in for-and even more importantly, the woman's daughter Lori (Melissa Newman) must also face the cold, cruel facts. First shown on March 21, 1971, "A Time to Die" was written by Don Ingalls. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lorne Greene, Michael Landon, (more)
- 1971
- G
Fires and tornados add to the difficulties of the Tanners, a Pittsburgh family of three which has pulled up stakes and moved to what they thought would be a fully functional ranch in Wyoming. Instead they find a broken down ruin. In addition to having to rebuild and battle the elements, they have a fight on their hands. Their cattleman neighbor controls the water, and he hates farmers. As the mother (Vera Miles) gets the household in order, the father and son (Steve Forrestand Ron Howard) struggle the get the ranch in working order; they are aided by a mountain man, Thompson (Jack Elam), and Two Dog, a Native American (Frank de Kova). When the showdown over water rights comes, these two new friends are at their side. This Technicolor western, set in the 1880's, is loosely based on the book "Little Britches," by Ralph Moody. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1971
In this courtroom drama, an attorney investigates the murder of a woman and comes up with some very interesting findings. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
The producers of In Search of America never declared outright that the made-for-TV film was intended as a series pilot, but there sure are plenty of loose plot ends. Carl Betz and Vera Miles play the parents of shaggy-haired college dropout Jeff Bridges. At the boy's suggestion, Betz and Miles pack their family--including grandma Ruth McDevitt--into a 1928 Greyhound bus and hit the road, in search of you-know-where. The picaresque plotline brings the family in contact with a variety of colorful characters. Written by Lewis John Carlino, a name that would mean a lot more to filmgoers after The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea (1976), In Search of America was first telecast March 23, 1971. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vera Miles, Carl Betz, (more)
- 1970
The chief of detectives who is requested to locate the kidnapped daughter of a friend encounters the friend's jealous husband. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1969
Embezzler Robert Pollard (Peter Donat) uses his considerable charm to persuade lonely women to assist him in his criminal activities. The FBI is alerted to Pollard's presence when his most recent "dupe", a female bank cashier, turns up murdered. Erskine (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) must now race against time to save the life of Pollard's latest unwitting accomplice Kate Burke (Vera Miles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1969
In the conclusion of a two-part story (originally telecast as a single two-hour episode), Ironside steps up his efforts to locate the kidnapped daughter of his former sweetheart Barbara Richards (Barbara Rush). Complicating the Chief's investigation is Barbara's husband Vic (Philip Carey), who can't get over the fact that his wife was in love with Ironside during a period of amnesia. Meanwhile, an ill-tempered rural lawman (Slim Pickens) also does his best to thwart Ironside's efforts to rescue the kidnap victim, lest all the credit for cracking the case go to an "out-of-towner". Featured in the supporting cast are such impressive talents as Dane Clark and Cloris Leachman. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1969
Man of the People was first telecast as an episode of the weekly, 90-minute TV adventure series Name of the Game. Series regulars Gene Barry, Robert Stack and Tony Franciosa relinquish the spotlight to guest star Vera Miles, who plays journalist Hilary Vanderman. Jilted by "populist" tycoon Cesar Rodriguez (Fernando Lamas), Hilary thirsts for revenge. She plans to publish a series of articles exposing the popular Rodriguez as a fraud, using his Mexican heritage to hornswoggle his own people. Robert Alda, Jackie Coogan and James Gregory costar, while Gary "Radar" Burghoff pops up in a microscopic supporting role. Man of the People originally aired March 6, 1970. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1969
In this drama, a sailor is blackmailed into stealing a valuable panel of stained glass. The trouble begins when the sailor gets into a fight with another and jumps ship in Sydney, Australia. Upon the docks he is knocked out. When he wakes up, he finds himself in a woman's apartment. She is the secretary of a shipping company, and she informs him that the other sailor died during the fight and that he is wanted by the police. A detective calls and confirms this. The shady secretary then offers to make him a deal: if he helps her steal a silver chalice from a museum, she will hide him from the cops. He agrees, but later he learns that what she really wants is a stained glass window from the museum. When she takes off to meet with a corrupt art dealer, the sailor pursues them, enlisting the aid of an attractive insurance investigator. Together, they bring back the priceless window, and the secretary meets her demise when she is smothered in a shower of wheat in a granary. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Lansing, Vera Miles, (more)
