Charles Aidman Movies

Director Alfred Hitchcock lets us know from the outset that The Wrong Man is a painfully true story and not one of his customary fabricated suspense yarns, through the simple expedient of walking before the camera and telling us as much (this introductory appearance replaced his planned cameo role as a nightclub patron). The real-life protagonist, musican Christopher Emmanuel Balestrero, is played by Henry Fonda. Happily married and gainfully employed at the Stork Club, Balestrero's life takes a disastrous turn when he goes to an insurance office, hoping to borrow on his wife's (Vera Miles) life insurance policy in order to pay her dental bills. One of the girls in the office spots Balestrero, identifying him as the man who robbed the office a day or so earlier. This, and a few scattered bits of circumstantial evidence, lead to Balestrero's arrest. Though he's absolutely innocent, he can offer no proof of his whereabouts the day of the crime. Lawyer Frank O'Connor (Anthony Quayle) does his best to help his client, but he's up against an indifferent judicial system that isn't set up to benefit the "little man". Meanwhile, Balestrero's wife becomes emotionally unhinged, leading to a complete nervous breakdown. As Balestrero prays in his cell, his image is juxtaposed onto the face of the actual criminal-who looks nothing like the accused man! Utilizing one of his favorite themes-the helplessness of the innocent individual when confronted by the faceless bureaucracy of the Law-Hitchcock weaves a nightmarish tale, all the more frightening because it really happened (the film's best moment: Fonda looking around the nearly empty courtroom during his arraignment, realizing that the rest of the world cares precisely nothing about his inner torment). Hitch enhances the film's versimilitude by shooting in the actual locations where the real story occured. His only concession to Hollywood formula was the half-hearted coda, assuring us that Mrs. Balestrero eventually recovered from her mental collapse (she sure doesn't look any too healthy the last time we see her!) Watch for uncredited appearances by Harry Dean Stanton, Bonnie Franklin, Tuesday Weld and Charles Aidman. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After the death of his son, Wealthy San Franciscan Martin Westropova (Carl Benton Reid) wants to get in touch with his daughter-in-law, whom he has never met. Hired to located the missing girl, Paladin (Richard Boone) finds he has his hands full when two different women step forward and claim to be Isobella Westropova. One of the two girls (Betsy Von Furstenberg) seems to be the genuine article--but Paladin suspects that there's dirty work afoot. This episode was directed by the great Lewis Milestone, who'd previously helmed such classic Hollywood films as All Quiet on the Western Front and of Of Mice and Men (the 1939 version). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Pork Chop Hill was based on the eyewitness essays of ex-soldier S. L. A. Marshall. The film is set during the Korean "police action." While diplomats argue pointlessly over the shape of the negotiation tables at Panmunjon, United Nations troops bleed and die. Lieutenant Gregory Peck leads a 135-man unit on the attack of the Chinese-held Pork Chop Hill. When reinforcements finally arrive, only 25 of Peck's men survive (and they aren't the usual survivors we've come to expect from earlier, cliché-ridden war films). Among the American troops are such dependable performers as Harry Guardino, Woody Strode, Rip Torn, Barry Atwater, George Peppard, Robert Blake and Martin Landau. Former cowboy-star Bob Steele also shows up briefly as an American general. According to director Lewis Milestone, Pork Chop Hill was cut by nearly twenty minutes because the wife of star Gregory Peck felt that her husband made his first entrance too late into the picture. True or not, the film does show signs of post-production tampering, with flashes of several excised scenes showing up under the main title credits. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Marianne Darelle (Norma Crane) wants to spend her vacation at the ocean resort of Woodmere, but for some curious reason the travel agent sells her a ticket to the town of Seaside instead. Even after Marianne exchanges the ticket, she ends up in Seaside all the same. Also in the same resort is a married couple, Mr. and Mrs. Bromley (Charles Aidman, Louise Lorimer), who have likewise been redirected to Seaside despite their desire to go to Woodmere. Just what exactly is going on here--and more specifically, what does fate have in store for Miss Darelle and Mr. Bromley? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Paladin (Richard Boone) is hired by a mortally woman named Mrs. Kilmer (Lillian Bronson), who wants to learn the whereabouts of her long-long son before she dies. The trail of clues leads Paladin to Harper City, a town held in the grip of the wealthy--and psychotic--Fred Harper (Charles Aidman). Clearly, Harper knows something about Mrs. Kilmer's prodigal son, but he isn't telling...and Paladin is fully aware that the previous detective hired to locate the boy turned up dead. This is the final episode of Have Gun, Will Travel's third season. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Despite irrefutable evidence which places Jim Applegate (Charles Aidman) at the scene of a lynching, Hoss Cartwright doesn't reveal this information to Sheriff Coffee. It is not friendship or loyalty which motivates Hoss' silence: Both he and Jim are in love with Cameo Johnson (Peggy Ann Garner), and Hoss does not want to be accused of falsely besmirching his romantic rival. Featured in the cast are Robert McQueeney as Gideon and Joe De Santis as Morehouse. Written by Anthony Lawrence and first telecast on April 15, 1961, "The Rival" was one of several Bonanza episodes directed by Robert Altman. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Though it is often assumed that Twilight Zone was rife with special-effects trickery, in point of fact the series used such effects sparingly -- though always effectively, as with this classic episode. Awakened by the cries of their daughter Bettina, Chris and Ruth Miller (Robert Sampson and Sarah Marshall) enter the girl's bedroom, only to find that she has apparently disappeared. Still, they can hear her Bettina's cries for help, and in desperation, they call in their physicist friend Bill (Charles Aidman) for advice. Assessing the evidence at hand, Bill comes to the unsettling conclusion that Bettina has somehow fallen through an invisible hole into the Fourth Dimension -- and as time runs out, it is Bill who puts his own life on the line to rescue the girl. So vital to the proceedings was the musical score by Bernard Herrmann that, for the first and only time in Twilight Zone history, Herrmann was billed above the name of the director. Scripted by Richard Matheson from his own short story, "Little Girl Lost" was first telecast on March 16, 1962. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the first episode of a two-part story, Rob (Dick Van Dyke) can't understand why Laura (Mary Tyler Moore) is so reluctant to sign some simple insurance forms. When Laura fails to show at a meeting arranged with an insurance agent, Rob refuses to buy her explanation that she went out to see the new Vincent Price movie "The Horrible Dr. Charming" and demands to know the real reason. Tearfully, Laura reveals that, at the time of their wedding, she told a "little lie" on the marriage certificate -- one that very well may nullify their entire marriage! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Claiming to have seen the One-Armed Man on the night of Helen Kimble's murder, Army captain James Eckhardt sends a letter to Donna Taft (Jacqueline Scott), the sister of fugitive Richard Kimble (David Janssen). When asked why he hasn't previously come forth with this valuable information, Eckhardt explains that he was stationed in Europe at the time of Kimble's trial. Accepting this story, Kimble is prepared to turn himself over to Lt. Gerard (Barry Morse) so that he can appear at a court hearing...until he learns a terrible secret about the troubled Captain Eckhardt. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Improvisational director Robert Altman hadn't yet found his cinematic "voice" when he helmed the conformist, stick-to-the-script Countdown. James Caan is top-billed as a scientist who is chosen over astronaut Robert Duvall for the upcoming NASA moon shot. In their haste to beat the Russians to the moon, the NASA folks have tried to sidestep several safety measures, but doctor Charles Aidman sees to it that every possible precaution is taken. When Caan makes it to the lunar surface, he stumbles upon gruesome evidence that the Russians had sent up a secret expedition themselves--and had fatally ignored all those extra security precautions which he's been subject to. Ted Knight, who received some of his best pre-Mary Tyler Moore roles in Altman's TV work, co-stars in Countdown. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Inspector Erskine (Efrem Zimbalist Jr. swings into action when three convicts, led by William Hollis (Edward Binns), escape by tunneling out of prison--murdering a guard in the process. Now the trio plans to put their tunnelling skills to even more practical use by burrowing into a maximum-security bank. Featured in the guest cast is Joanna Moore, the ex-wife of Ryan O'Neal and mother of child actress Tatum O'Neal. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

It's 1951 in Korea, a time that the United States Army doesn't like to remember. The Communists, led by Chinese forces, are tearing up the battlefield and overrunning American and South Korean positions, and in the midst of it, Sgt. Paul William Ryker (Lee Marvin), decorated World War II hero, with medals that would be the envy of any man in uniform, has been convicted of treason for allegedly deserting, going over to the enemy, and spending weeks behind enemy lines. He's scheduled to be executed, but Capt. David Young (Bradford Dillman), the prosecutor in the case, begins to worry that Ryker wasn't properly represented at trial -- he believes Ryker was guilty, but wants him to be convicted fairly. It hardly endears Young to the men around him when he starts pressing his doubts, and then he meets Ryker's wife, Ann (Vera Miles), who doesn't have the best of marriages but believes her husband is innocent. They start working together and, in the process, become attracted to each other. Ryker claims that a now-deceased counter-intelligence officer, Colonel Chambers, recruited him for a secret mission that would take him behind enemy lines, allegedly as an American turncoat, all to help plug a leak in his own command -- but Chambers was killed just 24 hours after Ryker's mission started, and nothing in his effects verifies Ryker's story. Young is ordered to lay off the case by his commanding officer, the new head of counter-intelligence, and General Bailey (Lloyd Nolan), commanding the sector, but Young risks his career to get Ryker a new trial. Now he's got to defend the man himself, against his own commanding officer as prosecutor, and prepare for his own court martial for conduct unbecoming an officer, for his affair with Ann Ryker. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Secret of the Pirate's Inn stars Ed Begley in one of his last roles, playing a retired Irish sea captain. Three kids (Jimmy Bracken, Annie McEveety, Patrick Creamer), try to help the old salt locate the lost treasure of pirate Jean Lafitte. A reporter (Charles Aidman) tags along, ostensibly to get a story. When the treasure is unearthed, the reporter shows his true colors by making off with the booty and kidnapping one of the kids. Secret of the Pirate's Inn originated as a two-part episode of TV's Wonderful World of Disney, initially broadcast November 23 and 30, 1969. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide