Jeanette Nolan Movies

A ferocious storm rages outside a remote wayside inn. The building's occupants include innkeeper Jeri Marcus (Jeanette Nolan), US Marshal Jim Buell (Crahan Denton), Buell's prisoner Davey Walsh (played by Gomer Pyle USMC's future "Sergeant Carter", Frank Sutton). . .and Paladin (ichard Boone), who has stopped at the inn during his search for a fugitive killer. Throughout the night, Walsh desperately insists that he is innocent--while Marshal Buell, convinced that Paladin has arrived to help Walsh escape, is nervously poised to shoot first and ask questions later. ~ Hal Erickson, 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

After he is seen literally throwing his money away, eccentric businessman Gus Dalgran (Otto Kruger) is locked up in a mental instution. Dalgran's far from loyal employees decide to use his absence as an opportunty to double-cross him, whereupon he escapes--and then things really get out of hand! Can it be that Dalgran was merely feigning insanity to cover up the murder of his duplicitous nephew Kenneth (Don Dubbins)? And what clues will Perry Mason find while visiting the military base which also figures into the story? Featured in the cast is a young Burt Reynolds, as well as soap-opera veteran John Larkin, who had previously starred in the radio version of Perry Mason. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Great Impostor is the true story of chameleonlike Canadian Ferdinand Waldo DeMara Jr., well-played by Tony Curtis. Unable to decide what he wants to do with his life, DeMara goes about pretending to be other people, hoping to eventually "find himself." He poses as a Harvard professor, a Trappist monk, a prison warden, and a navy physician, and manages each time to get away with the artifice. The film wavers uncertainly between tense drama and frothy comedy, with comedy finally winning out. Karl Malden co-stars as Father Devlin, the young DeMara's spiritual advisor, while Joan Blackman is the nominal (and hardly visible) heroine. The real Ferdinand DeMara (if indeed there was a real Ferdinand DeMara) can be seen in a supporting role in the 1960 melodrama The Hypnotic Eye. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Paladin (Richard Boone) receives an urgent missive from "Sheriff M.J. Smuggley", who asks the soldier-of-fortune to help purge a faraway town of a plethora of hired gunmen. Upon arrival in town, Paladin is surprised to learn that Sheriff Smuggley is actually a feisty middle-aged woman named Maude (Jeanette Nolan). Despite her ferocious demeanor, Maude is unable to persuade the locals to take her seriously in her efforts to clean up the town, so Paladin champions her cause--and as usual puts his own life on the line in the process. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Seven-year-old Peggy Smith (Laurie Perreau) has spent most of her life at the exclusive Westcroft Boarding School. Her tuition has been paid by an unknown person, who has also sent Peggy a doll each year. Curious about her benefactor, and wishing to find out who her parents were, little Peggy consults attorney Perry Mason (Raymond Burr). It turns out that Peggy is the granddaughter of wealthy recluse Courtney Jeffers (Francis X. Bushman), whose hard heart melts the moment he sets eyes on the child. But no sooner has Jeffers acknowledged that Peggy is his granddaughter than he is bludgeoned to death--and the person accused of the crime is Linda Osborne (played by Maggie Mahoney, real-life mother of actress Sally Field), who at Peggy's request is defended by Perry during the inevitable courtroom intrigues. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The mother (Jeanette Nolan) of teenager Sharon Trotter (Dorothy Provine) is appalled by the fact that Sharon is having an affair with a much older married man, Ben Nelson (Robert Alda). Worse still, Ben has been stringing Sharon along, promising that he will get a divorce from his wife (Fay Wray), but refusing to do so. This sordid state of affairs inevitably results in a murder -- giving Mrs. Trotter ample opportunity to avenge her daughter's honor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After a jade chess set owned by the uncle of hotel bellhop Hey Boy (Kam Tong) is stolen, Paladin (Richard Boone) agrees to track down the thieves and reclaim the loot. Riding to a lonely Montana town in hopes of intercepting the outlaws, Paladin spends the night in a rundown boarding house owned by Ma Warren (Jeanette Nolan). Before long, the original mission is all but forgotten as Paladin becomes enmeshed in a star-crossed romance between Ma's daughter Nancy (Lisa Gaye) and her would-be husband Chuck Anderson (Corey Allen, previously seen as James Dean's "chickie run" rival in Rebel Without a Cause). Future Bonanza costar Dan Blocker shows up in a minor role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The conflict between duty and conscience is explored in the WWII drama The Deep Six. Alan Ladd stars as Naval gunnery officer Alec Austin, a Quaker whose sincere pacifist sentiments do not sit well with his crew members. When he refuses to fire upon an unidentified plane, the word spreads that Austin cannot be relied upon in battle (never mind that the plane turns out to be one of ours). To prove that he's worthy of command, Austin volunteers for a dangerous mission: the rescue of a group of US pilots on a Japanese-held island. The ubiquitous William Bendix costars as Frenchy Shapiro (!), Austin's Jewish petty officer and severest critic. If the film has a villain, it is Keenan Wynn as ambitious Lt. Commander Edge, who seems to despise anyone who isn't a mainline WASP.The Deep Six was based on a novel by Martin Dibner. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Lt. Friday (Jack Webb) and Sgt. Smith (Ben Alexander) investigate the disappearance of a Mrs. Muller. It seems that just before the woman vanished, paroled murderess Annie Joplyn (Jeanette Nolan) was released in Mrs. Muller's custody. Contrary to her reputation, Annie is eager to help the detectives in their investigation--a bit too eager, as far as Friday is concerned! This episode is based on "The Big Thank You", the Dragnet radio broadcast of March 9, 1950. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

April Love is a musicalized remake of 1944's Home in Indiana. Pat Boone stars as a potential juvenile delinquent who is sent to work on a Kentucky farm. When he meets apple-cheeked local girl Shirley Jones, Boone decides that mending his ways might be an option. Before long, he is devoting himself to the task of training a horse to become a winning trotter. Nominated for an Academy Award, the film's title song proved to be one of Pat Boone's most durable hits. April Love benefits from its actual Lexington, Kentucky locations, lovingly photographed in CinemaScope and Deluxe Color by Wilfred Cline. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

It's "Freud on the Frontier" time in the tension-filled western The Halliday Brand. Ward Bond plays Big Dan, the despotic head of the Halliday clan, while Joseph Cotten and Betsy Blair costar as Halliday's offspring Daniel and Martha. Intensely anti-Indian, Big Dan encourages a mob to lynch Jivaro (Christopher Dark), Martha's half-breed sweetheart. Despising his father's complicity in Jivaro's death, Daniel breaks off his relationship with the elder Halliday, casting his lot with Jivaro's father (Jay C. Flippen) and sister (Viveca Lindfors). The climactic showdown between father and son is superbly and innovatively handled by director Joseph H. Lewis. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide