Gaylord "Steve" Pendleton Movies

Worried that Elly May will never land a husband if she doesn't learn how to cook, Granny hatches a clever scheme. Entering a national soup-cooking contest, Granny signs Elly's name to the application. Her reasoning: By the time a prospective husband discovers that Elly doesn't do her own cooking, it'll be too late for the poor sap. Sure enough, Granny's recipe wins first prize, whereupon a steady stream of hungry bachelors beat a path to Elly's door. "The Soup Contest" first aired September 21, 1966. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Having gained a measure of TV fame by 1958, the nightclub comedy duo of Dan Rowan and Dick Martin decided to give movies a try with Once Upon a Horse. Dan and Dick play Dan Casey and Doc Logan, a pair of nitwitted cowboys who turn to outlawry because they can't make a go at any honest profession. Stealing a valuable herd of cattle, the boys' dreams of financial security are dashed when they're forced to raise money to feed their stolen bovines. Martha Hyer costars as Miss Amity Babb, a resourceful saloon hall owner who applies 20th century business methods to her 19th century operation. For nostalgia buffs, several western-movie favorites (billed as "Our Old Pals") make cameo appearances, including Tom Keene, Bob Livingston, Kermit Maynard and Bob Steele. Hal Kanter's screenplay is full of clever, satirical touches, most of which proved to be too smart for the room in 1958. A financial disappointment, Once Upon a Horse (aka Hot Horse) would be Rowan and Martin's last joint film effort until 1969's The Maltese Bippy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this dark drama, a schizophrenic is forced out of his hospital due to overcrowding, and his doctors tell him to avoid stressful situations. He goes to a beachside motel and likes both the area and the owner's daughter. Her father discovers that he is a mental patient and threatens to have him recommitted unless he leaves his daughter alone. The schizophrenic snaps momentarily, killing him, and he and the daughter flee down the beach. He tries to kill her by pushing her into the water, but comes to his senses and rescues her. He ends up turning himself in. ~ Steve Huey, All Movie Guide

I Married a Woman was tailored by top comedy writer Goodman Ace to the peculiar, low-key talents of TV comedian George Gobel. Lonesome Gobel plays an advertising man whose successful "Miss Luxemburg Beer Beauty Contest" campaign yields a most unusual bonus: the contest's buxom winner Diana Dors, who becomes Gobel's wife. More devoted to his job than his marriage, Gobel is soon in danger of losing Dors' affections. He wins his wife back through a series of unexpected plot twists, not least of which is the inspiration he draws from viewing a John Wayne picture (Wayne appears as himself, unbilled). Produced by Gobel's own Gomalco company, I Married a Woman was lensed in black-and-white, except for the Technicolor John Wayne sequences; the film was slated to be released by RKO Radio, but the death of that company redirected the film to the distribution facilities of Universal-International. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Target Earth was adapted from Paul W. Fairman's short story Deadly City. Set in, of all places, Chicago, this sci-fier concentrates on four people who've congregated in the deserted city after a sudden and mysterious evacuation. The ill-matched foursome are Vicki Harris (Virginia Grey), a flashy, trashy blonde; Nora King (Kathleen Crowley), a young widow; Frank Brooks (Richard Denning), a handsome fellow with a questionable past; and Jim Wilson (Dick Reeves), a brutish transient. Though they don't get along at first, the four strangers are compelled to unite against a common enemy: an invading Venusian army, using huge robots to do their dirty work. Nothing spectacular, Target Earth works well within its modest limitations. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Robert Francis is at the center of the story as Willis Keith, a newly-minted ensign assigned to the destroyer/minesweeper U.S.S. Caine during World War II. Soon after his arrival, the ship gets a new captain, Lt. Comdr. Philip Francis Queeg Humphrey Bogart, a tough, no-nonsense veteran officer who tries to turns the crew into proper sailors and the Caine into a tight ship, engendering resentment from some of the men and several of his officers. A veteran of difficult years of service for too long, Queeg has insecurities about himself, his command, and his career that begin to manifest themselves as spells of temper over small details that cause him to make mistakes. Lt.Keefer (Fred MacMurray), the glib-tongued communications officer, begins making suggestions to the ship's sincere but overburdened first officer, Lt. Steve Maryk (Van Johnson), that Queeg may have mental problems. Maryk initially rejects these suggestions, and tries to support the captain, but conditions deteriorate to the point where Maryk is forced to relieve Queeg of command, and is charged -- along with Keith, who supported him -- with mutiny. Enter Lt. Barney Greenwald (Jose Ferrer), a lawyer in civilian life, who reluctantly agrees to help them, mostly out of sympathy for the impossible predicament in which Maryk has found himself trapped. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Alcoholic Bill Cannon's (Dan Duryea) past sins catch up with him in Chicago Calling. Cannon's daughter Nancy (Melinda Plowman) is seriously injured in an accident while out of town, and his wife Mary (Mary Anderson) has promised to call him back as soon as she learns the result of Nancy's operation. Unfortunately, Cannon's phone service is cut off for nonpayment, forcing him to go begging for the $50 necessary to square his phone bill. Only through the kindness of waitress Peggy (Marsha Jones) and telephone engineer Jim (Ross Elliot) is Cannon able to make the crucial call to his wife. Alas, the operation has proved unsuccessful. Will the impact of this tragedy push Cannon over the brink, or will it inspire him to seek out a new lease on life? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Allan "Rocky" Lane is cleverly cast as Allan "Rocky" Lane in the Republic western Desert of Lost Men. The story finds Lane going undercover to trap the leader of an outlaw gang. His scheme is complicated by the fact that heroine Nan Webster (Mary Ellen Kay) is the daughter of a doctor who is deeply involved in the gang's activities. Veteran character actor Irving Bacon is second-billed as the film's comedy relief, an ineffectual sheriff named Skeeter Davis (no relation, of course, to the country-western star of the same name). Though nothing new, Desert of Lost Men is expertly assembled. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

John Wayne stars as Lt. Col. Kirby Yorke, whose devotion to duty has cost him his marriage to his beloved Kathleen (Maureen O'Hara). Yorke gets word that his son, Jeff (Claude Jarman Jr.) -- whom he hasn't seen in 15 years -- has been dropped as a cadet from West Point, and that he lied about his age to enlist in the cavalry, in an effort to redeem himself. By chance, the boy is then assigned to his father's post. Once more, as a function of his duty as a cavalry officer, Yorke must sacrifice his love of family -- he cannot show any preferential treatment to the boy, or exhibit any sign of love and affection. But Jeff is too strong to be injured by his father's actions, and already enough of a man that he is befriended by two older recruits, troopers Tyree (Ben Johnson) and Boone (Harry Carey Jr.), who watch out for him while taking him in as a virtual equal. Yorke's resolve is further tested when his estranged wife, Kathleen, arrives at the post, the better to look after her son -- and possibly to buy back the boy's enlistment, which Yorke, as commanding officer in a remote post with a critical shortage of men, can't and won't permit. After an attack by the Apaches, Yorke orders the post's women and children to be moved to safety, and Jeff is assigned as part of the troop conducting the caravan, despite his wish to participate in the planned action against the Apaches. The caravan is attacked, and the wagon with the children is taken by the Apaches to their encampment in a deserted village across the Rio Grande in Mexico. Yorke has been given permission by General Sheridan (J. Carrol Naish) to take his men into Mexico in pursuit of the Apaches, but the punitive expedition is now a rescue mission, as the Indians' night-time vengeance dance is the prelude to certain slaughter of the children at daybreak. As part of the mission, it's up to Tyree, the slyest man in the troop, to infiltrate the enemy camp, and he chooses Jeff and Boone as the two men he wants with him on this dangerous mission. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Gunfire stars bantam-weight western favorite Don Barry as legendary outlaw Frank James. Actually, Frank is an ex-outlaw when the film begins; in fact, he's sworn never to use his guns again. But when somebody begins posing as Frank and pulling off a series of robberies....well, what's a man to do? Helping Frank prove his innocence is sympathetic marshal Kelly (Robert Lowery), who gives James plenty of leeway to capture the genuine miscreants. Though produced and directed on a shoestring budget, Gunfire delivers the action goods to everyone's satisfaction. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Sunset in the West finds Roy Rogers playing a deputy sheriff in a wide-open town. Roy must contend with a vicious gun-smuggling ring, this time aided and abetted by a bloodhound (not Rogers' "wonder dog" Bullet). The climax, set aboard a moving freight-car festooned with cases of live ammunitions, is one of the more exciting in the entire Rogers canon. Though Penny Edwards plays the nominal heroine, Estelita Rodriguez dominates the proceedings as a peppery South American songstress. Also contributing to the musical portion of the program are Foy Willing and the Riders of the Purple Sage. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide