Jim Nolan Movies

Gene Hackman plays a disgruntled suburbanite who manages the Ultra-Sav, an all-night drugstore. He hates his job, hates his debts and responsibilities, and isn't overly fond of his wife (Diane Ladd) and son (Dennis Quaid). Partly as a form of protest, Hackman enters into an affair with Barbra Streisand, one of his wife's distant relatives (don't ask how she's related - it takes Hackman about thirty seconds to explain it to another character). Streisand doesn't belong in this picture at all, but she can be forgiven her acting excesses because she wasn't the first choice for the role anyway (Lisa Eichhorn dropped out just before shooting began). The best moments in All Night Long involve the steady stream of oddballs and losers who trickle into Hackman's establishment. There is also a cute Apocalypse Now parody involving a battery-operated toy helicopter. The principal attraction of All Night Long is Gene Hackman playing an endearingly recognizable modern type. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Don Siegel directed this offbeat crime thriller which stars Walter Matthau as the titular Charley Varrick. Varrick is a small-time stick-up man who, in tandem with his partner Harman Sullivan (Andrew Robinson), makes plans to rob a small bank in New Mexico. Varrick and Sullivan are expecting a modest payday for a simple heist, but to their surprise they walk away with $750,000 in cash. But it turns out this isn't entirely good news; the bank was flush with cash because a number of well-connected Mafia chieftains have been using the bank to launder their ill-gotten gains, and they're determined to get their money back. Before Varrick can figure out a way to return the money, sadistic hired killer Molly (Joe Don Baker) is on his trail, forcing Varrick to outwit both the cops and the robbers if he is to stay alive.

~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Airport had enough plot and enough star power in its cast for three feature films, and it only encompassed about half of the complexity or characters found in Arthur Hailey's best-selling potboiler. Essentially built around 12 harrowing hours at a major Midwestern airport, the film had everything an audience of the period could have wanted -- suspense, romance, drama, and comedy -- all spread across a vast canvas. Mel Bakersfeld (Burt Lancaster) is the manager of Lincoln Airport, facing a night beset by the worst blizzard in a decade, a wife (Dana Wynter) who announces she wants a divorce, a primary runway blocked by an airliner stuck in a snowdrift, and a governing board ready to fire him. Bakersfeld's cynical, smooth-talking brother-in-law, Vernon Demerest (Dean Martin), won't let up on his criticism of the management at Lincoln, but he has his own problems as well, mostly in the form of a young stewardess, Gwen Meighen (Jacqueline Bisset), who is pregnant by him and whom he finds he genuinely loves. Add to that the presence of an old lady stowaway (Helen Hayes) and a mentally disturbed passenger (Van Heflin) carrying a bomb, and there's more than enough plot to keep viewers engrossed for two hours plus. Airport became one of the top-grossing movies of its era, racking up seven-digit box-office numbers and spawning an entire film genre -- the disaster movie. With Jean Seberg, George Kennedy, Lloyd Nolan, Barry Nelson, and Maureen Stapleton filling out the rest of the leading roles, there was something for almost everyone in this film. The movie still has a lot to offer if only as a prime example of Hollywood at its most successfully glitzy, but, if possible, viewers should try and see the letterboxed version of Airport on DVD (released May 2001). ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

Christopher Lee plays the horribly scarred chauffeur Erich in this Italian horror feature first released in 1963. He is the keeper of a German castle where visitors are tortured at will by a mysterious madman. Rossana Podesta and Georges Riviere also appear in this routine feature alternately titled Back To The Killer, Terror Castle, and the literal English translation of the original title, The Virgin Of Nurembeg. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

Obviously inspired by such films as The Asphalt Jungle and The Killing, The Big Caper takes place in a small town with a large bank. James Gregory plays the leader of a gang of thieves who intends to knock over the bank--but not without meticulous pre-planning. In the months prior to the holdup, gang members Rory Calhoun and Mary Costa (a popular opera star making her dramatic film debut) gain the confidence of the townspeople by posing as the husband-and-wife owners of a local gas station. When Gregory makes it clear that he plans to blow up a school to create a diversion, Calhoun and Costa decide to go straight in a hurry. The Big Caper was directed by Robert Stevens, best known for his work on such TV anthologies as Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Twilight Zone. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

One man's good luck leaves a very bad impression in this comedy. Johnny Dalton (Frank Sinatra) and Mildred Goodhug (Jane Russell) are two tellers working at the same bank who have fallen in love and want to get married. However, neither is making much money, and Johnny doesn't want to set a date until he has some savings in the bank. Emil J. Keck (Groucho Marx), a pal of Johnny's who waits tables at a diner, suggests that it can't be that difficult to "find" some money in a bank, but Johnny prefers to stay on the straight and narrow. However, Johnny enjoys a sudden windfall after he happens upon "Hot Horse" Harris (Nestor Paiva), a racetrack tout being beaten up by ne'er-do-wells, and breaks up the fight. Grateful Harris places a bet on a "can't lose" horse in Johnny's name, and suddenly Johnny is $60,000 richer. But before Johnny and Mildred can enjoy their good fortune, word leaks out that someone has embezzled $70,000 from the bank, and the suddenly prosperous Johnny seems a likely suspect. Double Dynamite was produced under Howard Hughes' supervision at RKO, but bad blood between Hughes and Sinatra led to "Ol' Blue Eyes" receiving third billing for the film's leading role; the film also spent over a year on the shelf before finally hitting theaters. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Robert Rockwell, Republic Pictures' resident all-purpose hero, stars in Alias the Champ. This time, Rockwell plays Lt. Ron Peterson, who doubles as a homicide detective and local administrator of the professional wrestling code. When real-life rassler Gorgeous George (that's how he billed himself) is framed for murder by a gang of crooks, Lt. Peterson tries to prove George's innocence. It isn't just the job that motivates Peterson: he's sweet on the wrestler's pretty manager Lorraine (Audrey Long). Fans of the current WWF and WCW TV wrestling extravaganzas might get a kick out of the scenes wherein Gorgeous George, Bomber Kulkavitch, Billy Varga, Jack "Sockeye" MacDonald, the Super-Swedish Angel (aka Tor Johnson) and their confreres hunker down to business in the ring. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Widely regarded as a "model" B-movie thriller, The Window stars Bobby Driscoll as a young boy prone to fibs. Thus, no one believes him when he claims to have seen a murder in a neighboring apartment. No one, that is, except the killers (Paul Stewart and Ruth Roman). Realizing he won't get any help from his parents (Barbara Hale and Arthur Kennedy) or the law, the boy must figure out a way to save himself from being shut up permanently by the murderers. The film's hair-rising and oft-imitated climax, which takes place in a rotting abandoned tenement, has lost none of its edge over the past five decades. A much-needed hit for financially strapped RKO Radio Pictures, The Window was remade in 1960 as The Boy Cried Murder. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Thieves' Highway is set in San Francisco and the surrounding countryside. Richard Conte plays Nick Garcos, an American GI who returns from WWII to find that his father Yanko (Morris Carnovsky), a produce trucker, has lost the use of both legs because of a fight with crooked truck driver Mike Figlia (Lee J. Cobb). Nick is a clean-cut guy who was set on marrying his sweetheart Polly Faber (Barbara Lawrence). Instead, Nick gets embroiled in his father's feud with Mike, buying a truck and falling deeper into racketeering. He delivers a truckload of apples to Mike as part of a scheme to expose his cheating. A prostitute, Rica (Valentina Cortesa), tells Nick that Mike has his own plot to trap him. Nick and Rica help Mike's henchmen learn that Mike has also been cheating them, and Nick eventually gets his revenge. But Nick has permanently lost Polly because of his involvement with the gangsters and his change in personality from a good guy to a more sinister businessman. Director Jules Dassin was blacklisted from Hollywood for supposed communist sympathies after making this 1949 picture, but he went on to have success with more caper movies while in exile in France. ~ Michael Betzold, Rovi

Marsha Hunt seems far too mature and intelligent for the pulpish goings-on in Mary Ryan, Detective. Still, Hunt was a pro (for that matter, she still is), and she managed to survive this Columbia "B" without egg on her face. Assigned to get the goods on a notorious fence, detective Mary Ryan (Hunt) poses as a prison inmate to gain the confidence of one of her quarry's confederates. Upon being sprung from jail, Mary goes to work for the fence--and, predictably, nearly gets bumped off when her ruse is revealed. Featured in the cast are such crime-meller habitues as John Dehner, Ben Welden, Paul Bryar and Ralph Dunn. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

"This boy...and this girl...were never properly introduced to the world we live in." With this superimposed opening title, director Nicholas Ray inaugurates his first feature, They Live by Night. Farley Granger and Cathy O'Donnell play a "Bonnie and Clyde"-type fugitive couple, who in trying to escape their past are hell-bent down the road to Doom. Despite their criminal activities, Bowie (Granger) and Keechie (O'Donnell) are hopelessly naïve, fabricating their own idyllic dream world as the authorities close in. The entrapment -- both actual and symbolic -- of the young misfit couple can now be seen as a precursor to the dilemma facing James Dean in Ray's 1955 film Rebel Without a Cause. A box-office disappointment upon its first release, They Live by Night has since gained stature as one of the most sensitive and least-predictable entries in the film noir genre. The film was based on a novel by Edward Anderson, and in 1974 was filmed by Robert Altman under its original title, Thieves Like Us. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Son of God's Country stars singing cowboy Monte Hale in his traditional screen role of do-gooder and last-minute problem-solver. This time, it's the old "evil land baron" plot again, with the villains eager to grab up all available ranch property, then sell it back to the incoming railroad. The chief heavy (Jim Nolan) orders the killings of several ranchers, carefully framing a former Confederate officer (Steve Darrell) for the murders. Hale puts an end to this perfidy with the assistance of comic sidekick Eli Walker (Paul Hurst). Surprisingly, Monte Hale is permitted to sing only once. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi