Barney Phillips Movies

This ghostly made-for-television romance tells the story of a struggling widower who finds that life becomes easier once his beloved comes back from the grave to assist him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this television outing, condors run aerial reconnaissance to find new habitats that are free of human influence. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Taking over the already profitable Hughes tool company from his deceased father, the teenaged Howard Hughes (Tommy Lee Jones) turns the operation into a billion-dollar business. Along the way, he dabbles in film production, romancing such Hollywood lovelies as Katharine Hepburn (Tovah Feldshuh) and Billie Dove (Lee Purcell). Fame becomes notoreity as Hughes embarks on such projects as the "bosom western" The Outlaw and the "Spruce Goose." He also defiantly stands up to the HUAC-only to become one of America's most virulent anti-Communists. In his twilight years, the fabulously wealthy but increasingly paranoid Hughes lives like a down-and-out hermit in his high-rise Las Vegas suite, communicating only with his trusted associate Noah Dietrich (Ed Flanders), and then not even with him. Adapted from the memoirs of Noah Dietrich, The Amazing Howard Hughes originally aired April 13 and 14, 1977. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this Disney comedy, a pair of spoiled kids, bored by their filthy rich grandfather, decide they'd rather be with their mom who is in Hong Kong. In order to get her attention, they engineer their own kidnapping. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Rule of thumb: if David Lowell Rich directed it, it's probably a TV movie. Beg, Borrow or Steal stars Mike Connors, Michael Cole and Kent McCord as three ex-cops, disabled while on duty. Having trouble finding regular work, the three men team up to steal a valuable statue from a museum. Connors has no legs, Cole no hands, and McCord is blind: but when they're working together, they're a lean mean stealing machine. Beg, Borrow or Steal is as tasteless as it sounds, but at least it has the novelty of three popular TV detective-show stars pooling their resources on the opposite side of the law. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The shadow of the recent Attica uprising looms large over the October 3, 1972 Bonanza episode "Riot!" While on a tour of the Nevada State Prison, Ben Cartwright and several other prominent men are taken hostage by rioting prisoners. Though some of the inmates hope to escape, most of the others simply want to expose the brutal conditions in the prison-conditions that the corrupt wardens are determined will never be made public. The supporting cast includes Gregory Walcott as Will Cooper, Marco St. John as Plank, Aldo Ray as Heiser, Barney Philips as Calhoun, and Denver Pyle as the head warden. Also on hand is Tim Matheson, making the first of several Bonanza appearances as reformed convict Griff King. Riot! was written by Robert Pirosh. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Savage Run was originally telecast as Run Simon Run (after bearing the working title The Tradition of Simon Zuniga). Burt Reynolds stars in this made-for-TV movie as a Papago Indian, who returns to his people after serving a long sentence for a crime he didn't commit. To clear himself of the murder of his own brother, Reynolds begins a long and bloody search for the actual killer. Inger Stevens made her final film appearance in this 74-minute Aaron Spelling production. Run Simon Run was first shown December 1, 1970. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Posing as "Tony Maxwell", Richard Kimble (David Janssen) hides out in the Barrio of an unnamed city. Taking a job at the cigar-manufacturing business run by Jose Anza (Gilbert Roland), Kimble befriends Jose's grandson Jimmy (Tom Nardini), a troubled youth torn between the demands of his father and the peer pressure exerted by a local street gang. Offering to help Kimble hide from the police, Jimmy soons discovers that the real threat to the fugitive's safety is the boy's own hoodlum "friends". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Steve McQueen received his only Academy Award nomination for his performance in this epic-scale war drama, based on the novel by Richard McKenna. In 1926, as China teeters on the edge of political revolution in the midst of a civil war, the USS San Pablo, is ordered to patrol the Yangtze River to represent and protect American interests. While the San Pablo may be an American ship, much of the labor is actually performed by Chinese locals willing to work for American money, while stern but inexperienced commanding officer Captain Collins (Richard Crenna) frequently drills his charges, unsure what else to do. A machinist's mate with just under a decade of navy service behind him, Jake Holman (Steve McQueen) is assigned to the San Pablo and immediately makes enemies among the crew -- he prefers to do his own work rather than farm it out to others, and the one Chinese man who works by his side, Po Han (Mako), is treated as an apprentice rather than a servant. Holman also falls in love with an idealistic American missionary (Candice Bergen), while his shipmate Frenchy (Richard Attenborough) falls for a Chinese girl and - with marriage plans in mind - kidnaps her to prevent her from being auctioned off. As Holman's methods and attitudes continue to anger his comrades, they find themselves increasingly at odds with the Chinese, especially after Frenchy's girlfriend becomes pregnant and Po Han is captured by revolutionary forces and branded a traitor. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The first season of this World War II series -- which was based on the 1949 feature film starring Gregory Peck and Dean Jagger (who won the Oscar) -- starred Robert Lansing as Brigadier General Frank Savage (the role played by Peck in the movie), the commander of the 918th Heavy Bombardment Group, based at Archbury. That season hewed the most closely to the film in terms of characters, with Frank Overton in the recurring role of Adjutant Major Harvey Stovall (the Dean Jagger role), and, as regular, recurring characters, Lew Gallo as Major Cobb, Barney Phillips as Major Kaiser ("Doc Kaiser"), the group medical officer, John Larkin as Savage's commanding officer, Major General Wiley Crowe (later succeeded by John Zaremba as Major General Stoneman); and Paul Newland as his superior officer, Lieutenant General Pritchard. The series was based, like the movie, on the novel of the same name by Sy Bartlett and Beirne Lay, Jr. (who also wrote the screenplay), who were listed as creators of the program, and based their work on the real-life story of General Frank Armstrong, commander of the 306th Bomb Group. As one would expect, the series concentrated initially on airborne stories. The fact that the series was originally in black-and-white made it possible to use a large amount of actual World War II footage -- although, as with the original film, it was the men's lives on the ground that were the main substance of the scripts. As with most dramatic series of this era, faced with producing over 30+ episodes each season, the series' output was somewhat uneven, in the writing as well as the direction, though the acting was consistently good. To the viewer, the difficulty with the first season was that the scripts got a little repetitive early on -- one can wonder, for example, looking at the series four or five decades on, how many nests (or potential nests) of spies, and how many women with agendas of their own, would a combat officer such as Frank Savage cross paths with in real life?

The real problems with the first season were more internal, and mostly concerned the star, Robert Lansing, a method-trained actor with theatrical experience who was reputed to be very difficult to work with. Producer Quinn Martin apparently decided early on that his role might have to be written out and the actor replaced. In the very first episode, the writers introduced the character of Joseph Gallagher, the son of an Army Air Force lieutenant general, played by Paul Burke -- a leading man who had just come off of the series The Naked City -- initially as a captain. Gallagher reappears in the 24th episode as a major and squadron commander, setting the stage for his replacing Savage in the first episode of the second season. Officially, the reason that Lansing was leaving the series was a result of his lack of appeal to female viewers (though how many female viewers were watching a series such as this was questionable), and the fact that the producers wanted a younger man, though Burke was actually two years older than Lansing, but was a more conventionally handsome man and looked younger.

The series' first season is generally by fans as the best, despite the internal strains behind the scenes. The scripts delved into the dark side of the psyche, on the part of pilots, their commanders, and the people around them (including women); and if one could get past moments of incredulity, the suspense level in some of the stories was most bracing and effective. In "The Hours Before Dawn", for example -- a show that seems to have borrowed its title and part of its content from a Somerset Maugham wartime story -- Savage is the only man with details of a vital mission, and finds himself trapped during a German bombing raid in a house with a woman (Glynis Johns) who has retreated from all contact with the war or the outside world, and a downed German colonel (Fritz Weaver), who plans on capturing or killing Savage.

As a result of the fact that a lot of the drama was set on the ground, 12 O'Clock High was able to feature a much larger female presence than most World War II series of its era. This obviously pleased the sponsors and the network, though at times it also made the program seem a little too much like a soap opera for modern tastes. The series was successful enough to be renewed for a second season, but not without a lot of vast changes in store for the cast, more than was typical of television during this period. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Robert Duvall stars as Charley Parkes, a shy and lonely man who spends his spare time at the museum, even though his domineering mother (Pert Kelton) would prefer that Charley seek out a suitable girlfriend. But as far Charley is concerned, he already has a sweetheart -- a tiny but lifelike ballerina doll, part of a 19th century dollhouse exhibit. While "conversing" with the doll one day, Charley is startled as the ballerina comes to life -- as do several less appealing miniature characters. Originally telecast February 21, 1963, this Charles Beaumont-scripted Twilight Zone episode was later withdrawn from the series' syndicated package due to a legal complication. "Miniature" did not see the light of day again until 1984, when a semi-colorized version was included in a two-hour syndicated Twilight Zone 25th Anniversary special. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The marvelous pantomime talents of Dick Van Dyke are given full rein in this episode, as Rob (Van Dyke) takes any number of precautions to keep his house from being robbed by the clever cat burglar who has descended upon his neighborhood. Despite these strenuous efforts, Rob awakens one morning to find that most of his living room furniture has vanished! Even so, it is "Sherlock" Petrie who provides the ultimate solution as to how the cat burglar has so long escaped detection. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The only episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour directed by Hitchcock himself (though he'd previously helmed several of the anthology's half-hour installments), "I Saw the Whole Thing" draws its suspense from the reliability -- or lack of reliability -- of eyewitness testimony. Arrested on suspicions of causing a fatal car accident, mystery writer Michael Barnes (John Forsythe) insists upon acting as his own attorney. Five witnesses insist under oath that they saw Barnes run a stop sign -- and in each case, Barnes discredits their testimony by proving that the witnesses only thought they saw what they saw, based on their own experiences and personal prejudices. Things take an unexpected turn when a sixth witness offers a sixth version of the accident. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide