Leslie Parrish Movies

Betty Grable's final film was a remake of the 1934 Bing Crosby-Miriam Hopkins musicomedy She Loves Me Not, which in turn was based on a play by Howard Lindsay. Betty and Sheree North star as a couple of striptease "artistes" who have the bad luck to witness a murder. Hoping to evade the killer, the girls hide out in a small college town, where they immediately win the hearts of the male frat brothers. One of these is overaged undergrad Robert Cummings, who falls for Betty, while Sheree settles for not-terribly-bright Orson Bean. A subplot concerns the unending get-rich-quick schemes of college president Charles Coburn. Before the story can be resolved, both Betty and Sheree are placed under hypnosis, with hilarious results. It could not have rested well with Betty Grable that Sheree North stole the show in How to Be Very, Very Popular--especially with her energetic rendition of "Shake, Rattle and Roll"--but Betty was on the verge of retiring anyway, so what the heck? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Frank Tashlin directed this comedy about a man whose marriage hits the skids when his wife gets caught in the draft. Gregory Whitcomb (Tom Ewell) served with distinction in the Army during WWII, but he now makes his living as a television writer. Gregory's wife Katy (Sheree North), several years his junior, was also a member of the military as a WAC. When the armed forces find themselves strapped for qualified personnel, Gregory and Katy are ordered to return to active duty; after his physical, Gregory is reclassified 4-F for health reasons, but Katy is judged 1-A and put back in camouflage. Now poor Gregory finds himself having to look after the home by himself and waiting for his spouse at the base, while both Katy and Gregory try to figure out how to free her from her military obligations. The Lieutenant Wore Skirts also features Rita Moreno and Rick Jason. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Green cheese? Men in the Moon? Nah, everyone knows that the moon is really populated by beautiful women wearing silk underwear and spiked heels. They are ruled by an evil temptress and share the moon with giant rock men and an enormous spider. Honest. Just watch this campy remake of Cat Women of the Moon and see for yourself. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

High-fashion diva Flavia Halliday (Marie Windsor) humiliates her husband Charles (John Conte) on network television by flatly refuting Charles' announcement that he has sold their firm's name to another company. For Charles, this is the last straw: He demands a divorce, but Flavia merely laughs at him. Subsequently, Flavia is poisoned, and as she dies in the arms of her companion Leona (Dorothy Neumann) she accuses Charles and his mistress Hope (Leslie Parrish) of killing her! Can Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) neutralize the power of a deathbed statement to clear Charles and Hope of murder? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Paint manufactuer Amory Fallon (played by Wesley Lau, who later joined the Perry Mason cast as Lt. Anderson) suspects his partner Ned Thompson of embezzling funds, setting the fire which wrecked their plant, and worst of all, cheating with Fallon's wife Vivian (Leslie Parrish). Intending to confront Thompson in the man's apartment, Fallon not only brings along a threatening letter, but also gets good and drunk to bolster his courage. Passing out before Thompson returns, Fallon wakes up to find his partner's dead body on the floor beside him. In defending Fallon on a murder charge, Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) must somehow get his client to remember exactly what happened on the fatal night. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

An unusually tense and intelligent political thriller, The Manchurian Candidate was a film far ahead of its time. Its themes of thought control, political assassination, and multinational conspiracy were hardly common currency in 1962, and while its outlook is sometimes informed by Cold War paranoia, the film seemed nearly as timely when it was reissued in 1987 as it did on its original release. It opens with a group of soldiers whooping it up in a bar in Korea as their commander, Sgt. Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey), arrives to inform them that they're back on duty. These men obviously have no fondness for Shaw, and he feels no empathy for them. While on patrol, Shaw and his platoon are ambushed by Korean troops. Months later, Shaw is receiving a hero's welcome as he returns to the United States to accept the Congressional Medal of Honor, and several of the soldiers who served under Shaw repeatedly refer to him as "the bravest, finest, most lovable man I ever met." It soon becomes evident that after their capture by the Koreans, Shaw and his men were subjected to an intense program of brainwashing prior to their release. While several are troubled by bad dreams and inexplicable behavior, it's Capt. Bennett Marco (Frank Sinatra) who seems the most haunted by the experience. In time, Marco is able to piece together what happened; it seems Raymond Shaw was programmed by a shadowy cadre of Russian and Chinese agents into a killing machine who will assassinate anyone, even a close friend, when given the proper commands. On the other side of the coin, Shaw is also used for political gain by his harridan mother (Angela Lansbury), who guides the career of her second husband, John Iselin (James Gregory), a bone-headed congressman hoping to win the vice-presidential nomination through a campaign of anti-Communist hysteria.

The Manchurian Candidate features a host of remarkable performances, several from actors cast cleverly against type. Frank Sinatra's edgy, aggressive turn as Marco may be the finest dramatic work of his career; Laurence Harvey's chilly onscreen demeanor was rarely used to s better advantage than as Raymond Shaw; James Gregory is great as the oft-befuddled Senator Iselin; and Angela Lansbury's ultimate bad mom will be a shock to those who know her as the lovable mystery writer from Murder, She Wrote. George Axelrod's screenplay (based on Richard Condon's novel) is by turns compelling, witty, and horrifying in its implications, and John Frankenheimer's direction milks it for all the tension it can muster. While Frankenheimer's career has had its ups and downs, The Manchurian Candidate and Seconds (1966) suggest that he deserves to be recognized as one of the most brilliantly paranoid American filmmakers of the '60s. Entertaining yet unsettling, both films indicate that things in the '60s were not what they seemed, with a resonance that still echoes uncomfortably in the present. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Helen Gurley Brown's self-help best-seller was the nominal source for this Hollywood sex romp, directed by Richard Quine, co-scripted by Joseph Heller and David R. Schwartz, and starring Tony Curtis and Natalie Wood. Tony Curtis plays Bob Weston, a writer for the scandal sheet "Dirt," who is working on an article on research psychologist Helen Gurley Brown (Natalie Wood) and her best-selling book Sex and the Single Girl. Bob needs to interview Helen, but she refuses to see him. Bob impersonates one of her neighbors, Frank Broderick (Henry Fonda), as a ruse in order to see her on the pretext of marital counseling. After several meetings, Bob attempts to seduce her; after they fall out of a boat and head back to Helen's apartment to dry out, Bob plies her with martinis. Rip-roarin' drunk, Helen confesses her love for Bob. He assures her it's fine, since he's not legally married, but Helen doesn't believe him and asks to meet his wife, Sylvia (Lauren Bacall). To fill up the breach, Bob mistakenly sends both his secretary, Susan (Leslie Parrish), and his ex-girlfriend Gretchen (Fran Jeffries) to see Helen -- both impersonating Sylvia. When the real Sylvia arrives at Helen's apartment with the two other women, Sylvia has her hapless husband Frank put in jail for bigamy. By this point, Helen has realized Bob's skullduggery and leaves town with her colleague Rudy DeMeyer (Mel Ferrer). Bob chases Helen onto the San Diego Freeway, where they also encounter Frank, who is being followed in a cab by Sylvia. A wild chase ensues as the bickering couples try to make it to their flights at the L.A. airport. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Greek mythology collides with the future in Who Mourns for Adonis?, an episode from the second season of the popular science fiction series. Traveling through distant space, the Enterprise is trapped by a mysterious force field that appears in the shape of a gigantic human hand. Seeking an explanation for this phenomenon, Kirk leads an expedition to explore a nearby planet, and they encounter a powerful creature who claims to be the ancient god Apollo. After demonstrating his immense power, Apollo orders Kirk and the others to bow down in worship. Outmatched in terms of brute force, the captain and his crew must discover a way to outwit Apollo or else remain trapped forever. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide

"Everybody needs candy of one kind or another," George Sanders says in The Candy Man. Sanders, playing a character named Sidney Carter, says this soon after giving some peppermint sticks to a pair of small children. But are they just peppermint sticks? As a down-and-out drug dealer, Carter is capable of just about anything. Desperate to make some real money, he comes up with an idea that, if it works, will let him retire: kidnap the young daughter of a visiting movie star (played by Leslie Parrish). To do this, Carter hires a pot addict, promising him plenty of drugs if he will undertake the abduction. Unfortunately, before his plan can be realized, someone else kidnaps the child. Carter comes up with an alternate plan, trying to build upon this unexpected occurrence; meanwhile, Parrish's agent begins behaving in a suspicious manner, raising the possibility that perhaps he has had a hand in the kidnapping. Eventually, the child finds herself tottering dangerously from the top of a tall building and risking death before being returned to her mother's anxious arms. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide

Everyone in the Davis household (and the general vicinity) is astonished when an attractive young secretary named Emily (Leslie Parrish) sets her cap for the dignified--and much older--Mr. French (Sebastian Cabot). At first mildly annoyed by Emily's attentions, Mr. French soon becomes interested, and quite flattered. Eventually he has convinced himself that he has fallen in love with Emily...and thus the stage is set for another bittersweet episode denoument. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Conspiracy to Kill was one of two pilot films for the Jack Webb-produced TV series The D.A. Robert Conrad stars as LA deputy district attorney Paul Ryan. This time around, Ryan reopens a case that he's already won. New evidence indicates that a supposedly victimized drugstore owner (William Conrad) was the brains behind a robbery and murder that occurred at his own establishment. The D.A. series proper ran from September 17, 1971, through January 7, 1972. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Banyon is an A-number-one detective yarn set (very accurately) in the 1930s. Robert Forster, emulating John Garfield in virtually every scene, plays private eye Miles C. Banyon. Right now he's in dutch because a beautiful young woman has been found murdered--and Banyon's gun was the murder weapon. This state of affairs plunges the detective into a maelstrom of deceit and double-cross involving (among many elements) a Winchell-style radio commentator (Jose Ferrer), a paroled big-time gangster, a scar-faced assassin, and a Nazi Bund camp. Once he solves the main mystery, Banyon is faced with the unhappy Maltese Falcon task of exposing a close friend as a murderer. First telecast March 15, 1971, Banyon spawned a brief TV series one year later, with Robert Forster still in the lead. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide