Vera Miles Movies

In this first half of the two-part sequel to the Season One episode "Barbara Who?" (originally telecast as a single two-hour "special"), Ironside (Raymond Burr) is reunited with Barbara Richards (Barbara Rush), a former amnesiac with whom he had once been in love. Barbara implores the Chief to help her recover her teenage daughter Leslie (Melody Scott Thomas), who has been kidnapped. The fact that Barbara has a bitterly jealous husband (Philip Carey) is only one of the obstacles facing Ironside in his efforts to save Leslie's life. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The title character in this episode is a female amnesia victim, played by the versatile Vera Miles. While searching for "Barbara"'s true identity, Ironside (Raymond Burr) discovers that somebody is trying to kill the woman. He also realizes that he is falling in love with "Barbara"--and that, despite his inherent professionalism, he is afraid of what he'll find out once her real name is verified. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Chance Buckman (John Wayne) heads a team of international trouble shooters who travel around the world to put out oil fires. The dangerous profession has taken a toll on the marriage between Chance and Madelyn (Vera Miles), who leaves when she can no longer endure the stress of saying goodbye and fearing she will never see him again. With his faithful assistant Greg (Jim Hutton), the team is ready at a moments notice to race anywhere to extinguish the flames of oil fires raging out of control. Greg eventually falls for Chance's daughter, Tish (Katherine Ross), who shares her mother's concern over the dangers the men endure. Hellfighters received technical advising from famed oil-well fighter Red Adair and his assistants who provided excellent and credible information for the film and the pyrotechnic team headed by legendary special-effects expert Fred Knoth. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Sam Moran (Richard Boone) is a Honolulu charter-boat captain who leads fishing expeditions in the tropical paradise. When his daughter is found murdered at the party of a wealthy young playboy, he seeks the truth about the murder. Convinced the playboy is guilty, he enlists the help of his friend Kittibelle (Joan Blondell), who runs an alcohol abuse treatment center. Sam runs into a wall of silence obviously built by hush money and islanders fearful of reprisals from the rich and powerful family. The determined dad fights to uncover the information that will land the murderer in jail as he avenges the death of his daughter. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

The title character is a benign 7-foot-tall grizzly bear (perhaps all grizzlies are benign, but we're not about to get close enough to find out). Little Clint Howard befriends the bear, naming the beast Ben. Clint's wildlife-officer dad Dennis Weaver and mom Vera Miles have some trouble adjusting to the boy's new pet, but all ends happily after a lengthy sojourn in the Everglades. The best scenes involve ex-Bowery-Boy Huntz Hall, here playing a grizzled old swamp tramp. The upshot of Gentle Giant's success was the TV series Gentle Ben, which also starred Howard and Weaver and which ran from 1967 through 1969. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One of Our Spies is Missing was cobbled together from a two-part episode of the American TV series Man From UNCLE, then shipped overseas as a feature film. Robert Vaughn and David McCallum head the cast as Napoleon Solo and Ilya Kuryakin, U.N.C.L.E's top agents. The original two-parter, "The Bridge of Lions Affair" (telecast February 4 and 11, 1966), concerns a biochemist who develops a rejuvenation process. The chemist disappears, so it's up to Solo and Kuryakin to recover or destroy the process before it falls into the hands of the enemy spy organization THRUSH. Padding out the proceedings in One of Our Spies is Missing is a newly-filmed subplot concerning the niece (Yvonne Craig) of U.N.C.L.E. head honcho Alexander Waverly (Leo G. Carroll). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Originally trade-previewed as Those Crazy Calloways, Disney's Those Calloways is a lengthy, anecdotal film about a highly individualistic New England family. Patriarch Cam Calloway (Brian Keith) is regarded as a crank by the local villagers because of his dream to build a bird sanctuary that will protect migratory geese from hunters. Cam uses all his savings to buy a lake, where he intends to establish his sanctuary. When a wealthy sportsman offers to turn the town into a booming resort community in exchange for hunting rights, Cam opposes the plan, which briefly puts him on the outs with everyone else. Only when Cam is accidentally shot by the sportsman do the locals rally around the "crazy" Calloways so that Cam's sanctuary can come to fruition. The plot of Those Calloways can best be described as picaresque; the film is most successful in establishing mood and atmosphere, and in offering a vast array of distinctive characterizations from such pros as Brian Keith, Vera Miles, Brandon de Wilde, Walter Brennan, Ed Wynn, John Larkin, Parley Baer, John Qualen, and Paul Hartman. Look for young Linda Evans as the girl friend of the oldest Calloway boy (DeWilde) and for future Picket Fences star Tom Skerritt as the town bully. Those Calloways was based on Swiftwater, a novel by Paul Annixter. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Vera Miles, who starred in the very first half-hour episode of Alfred Hitchcock's TV suspense anthology, returns a decade later to headline this hour-long installment. Miles plays Nicky Revere, the daughter of once-famous Hollywood director Gavin Revere (John Carradine). Not long after Nicky takes her dad's limo to garage mechanic and would-be actor Leo Manfred (James Farentino), Leo proposes to her in order to gain access to her father. The elder Revere is dead set against the wedding, believing (accurately) that Leo is nothing but a fortune-seeking opportunist -- and to prove that he isn't, Leo is forced to take out a life-insurance policy naming Nicky as beneficiary. Five points to anyone who guess how this one turns out. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Don Siegal directed this made-for-TV remake of the western drama Ride The Pink Horse, in which Robert Culp stars as Harry Pace, who has set out to avenge the violent death of a good friend. Pace's search leads him to New Orleans during the Mardi Gras celebration, where he meets a beautiful woman, Lois Seeger (Vera Miles). Pace's infatuation with Seeger leads him into a dangerous conflict with her husband, Arnie Seeger (Edmund O'Brien), a ruthless political power broker. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The sixth volume in a collection culled from the 1963-1965 science fiction anthology television series chronicles the time travels of a mutant from the future who goes back to prevent the birth of the mad scientist who is responsible for creating a horrifying virus. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

Engineer Alan Maxwell (Cliff Robertson) is using his commercial radio station's antenna to probe into deep space in experiments of his own, in the course of which he makes contact with a being (William O. Douglas, Jr.) from the great nebula in the constellation Andromeda. Through an accident, the alien is transported to Earth, where its radioactive emanations prove lethal to all who come in contact with it. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Like Pontius Pilate, director John Ford asks "What is truth?" in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance--but unlike Pilate, Ford waits for an answer. The film opens in 1910, with distinguished and influential U.S. senator Ransom Stoddard (James Stewart) and his wife Hallie (Vera Miles) returning to the dusty little frontier town where they met and married twenty-five years earlier. They have come back to attend the funeral of impoverished "nobody" Tom Doniphon (John Wayne). When a reporter asks why, Stoddard relates a film-long flashback. He recalls how, as a greenhorn lawyer, he had run afoul of notorious gunman Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin), who worked for a powerful cartel which had the territory in its clutches. Time and again, "pilgrim" Stoddard had his hide saved by the much-feared but essentially decent Doniphon. It wasn't that Doniphon was particularly fond of Stoddard; it was simply that Hallie was in love with Stoddard, and Doniphon was in love with Hallie and would do anything to assure her happiness, even if it meant giving her up to a greenhorn. When Liberty Valance challenged Stoddard to a showdown, everyone in town was certain that the greenhorn didn't stand a chance. Still, when the smoke cleared, Stoddard was still standing, and Liberty Valance lay dead. On the strength of his reputation as the man who shot Valance, Stoddard was railroaded into a political career, in the hope that he'd rid the territory of corruption. Stoddard balked at the notion of winning an election simply because he killed a man-until Doniphon, in strictest confidence, told Stoddard the truth: It was Doniphon, not Stoddard, who shot down Valance. Stoddard was about to reveal this to the world, but Doniphon told him not to. It was far more important in Doniphon's eyes that a decent, honest man like Stoddard become a major political figure; Stoddard represented the "new" civilized west, while Doniphon knew that he and the West he represented were already anachronisms. Thus Stoddard went on to a spectacular political career, bringing extensive reforms to the state, while Doniphon faded into the woodwork. His story finished, the aged Stoddard asks the reporter if he plans to print the truth. The reporter responds by tearing up his notes. "This is the West, sir, " the reporter explains quietly. "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend." Dismissed as just another cowboy opus at the time of its release, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance has since taken its proper place as one of the great Western classics. It questions the role of myth in forging the legends of the West, while setting this theme in the elegiac atmosphere of the West itself, set off by the aging Stewart and Wayne. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this British comedy, a formerly rakish submarine captain is transferred to a desk job. His reputation as a hero and playboy precedes him. He meets an old comrade and his gorgeous fiancee, a Yankee widow. His buddy is quite wealthy and the retired captain realizes that he too must make plenty of dough to steal the woman away. He immediately engineers an elaborate quick money scheme. First he makes it seem as if he has become a traitor in order to get the newspapers to write bad things about him. He then plans to sue them all for libel. He leaves his phony trail and then maroons himself on a desert island. He is later rescued and interrogated by the Special Branch. Fortunately, he convinces them of his innocence and continues with his plan. He then goes to the woman's home and is there discovered by his buddy. The friend sees that the two really are in love and gallantly bows out. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide