Denver Pyle Movies

James Stewart and Dean Martin are atypically cast as outlaws in Bandolero! The film begins as Dee Bishop (Martin) and his gang are about to be hanged. The Scripture-spouting executioner turns out to be Dee's brother Mace (Stewart), who helps the desperadoes escape. They are pursued by a sheriff (George Kennedy), whose lady friend (Raquel Welch) has the hots for Dee. The brothers try to go straight, but before they can make up their mind they find themselves surrounded by Mexican bandidos and are forced to team up with the sheriff to fight them off. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

On behalf of his father Ben Cartwright, Hoss delivers a large sum of money to the town of Dutchman Flats. Upon his arrival, however, Hoss is arrested by Sheriff Stedman (Denver Pyle) on a charge of bank robbery. Stedman knows that Hoss is innocent, but he's anxious to prove his worth to the townspeople. Stedman's plan goes horribly awry when the angry citizens form a lynch mob. Also in the cast are Olive Sturgess as Mary Ann, Roy Roberts as Fillmore, Terry Becker as Shukie, Kelly Thordsen as Larson, John Harmon as McCray, Rayford Barnes as Austin, and Lane Bradford as Tibbs. Written by Preston Wood and Elliot Arnold, "A Hot Day for a Hanging" first aired on October 14, 1962. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Written by Eric Norden and Frank Arno, "Little Man-Ten Feet Tall" focuses on the relationship between Ponderosa ranchhand Nick Biancci (Ross Martin) and Nick's impressionable young son Mario (Michael Davis. Though Mario is prepared to fulfill Nick's dreams by becoming a concert guitarist, he changes his mind when he sees his father being intimidated by his fellow ranchhands. Thoroughly disillusioned, Mario latches onto a new "role model"-Hoss Cartwright. Denver Pyle appears as the Sheriff, while other roles are filled by James Anderson, Lane Bradford and Bern Hoffman. "Little Man-Ten Feet Tall" was originally telecast on May 26, 1963, as the final episode of Bonanza's fourth season. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Cartwright boys' fraternal horseplay takes a painful turn when they accidentally injure their hired hand Jebediah Milbank (John Carradine). As Milbank recovers in Ben Cartwright's bedroom, Ben orders his rambunctious sons to tend to Jeb's unfinished responsibilities-and to that end, he dispatches Adam, Hoss and Joe to three different directions. Also appearing are Jena Engstrom as Ann, Claude Johnson as Paul, Denver Pyle as Theodore and John Qualen as Parley. First telecast October 1, 1961, "Springtime" was written by John Furia Jr.. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Taking advantage of the illness of his powerful rancher father Claude Roman (Denver Pyle), mean-spirited Jermey Roman (Jeremy Slate) runs roughshod over everyone. In addition to browbeating his sister Mary (Diane Muldaur) and reneging on a legitimate business deal with the Cartwrights, Jeremy also tries to get his father declared mentally incompetent. But by episode's end, Jeremy forcibly learns that there's more to greatness than merely inheriting a great name. First telecast on October 13, 1968, "The Passing of a King" was written by B.W. Sandefur. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Producer/star Warren Beatty had to convince Warner Bros. to finance this film, which went on to become the studio's second-highest grosser. It also caused major controversy by redefining violence in cinema and casting its criminal protagonists as sympathetic anti-heroes. Based loosely on the true exploits of Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker during the 30s, the film begins as Clyde (Beatty) tries to steal the car of Bonnie Parker (Faye Dunaway)'s mother. Bonnie is excited by Clyde's outlaw demeanor, and he further stimulates her by robbing a store in her presence. Clyde steals a car, with Bonnie in tow, and their legendary crime spree begins. The two move from town to town, pulling off small heists, until they join up with Clyde's brother Buck (Gene Hackman), his shrill wife Blanche (Estelle Parsons), and a slow-witted gas station attendant named C.W. Moss (Michael J. Pollard). The new gang robs a bank and Clyde is soon painted in the press as a Depression-era Robin Hood when he allows one bank customer to hold onto his money. Soon the police are on the gang's trail and they are constantly on the run, even kidnapping a Texas Ranger (Denver Pyle) and setting him adrift on a raft, handcuffed, after he spits in Bonnie's face when she kisses him. That same ranger leads a later raid on the gang that leaves Buck dying, Blanche captured, and both Clyde and Bonnie injured. The ever-loyal C.W. takes them to his father's house. C.W.'s father disaproves his son's affiliation with gangsters and enters a plea bargain with the Texas Rangers. A trap is set that ends in one of the bloodiest death scenes in cinematic history. The film made stars out of Beatty and Dunaway, and it also featured the screen debut of Gene Wilder as a mortician briefly captured by the gang. Its portrayal of Bonnie and Clyde as rebels who empathized with the poor working folks of the 1930s struck a chord with the counterculture of the 1960s and helped generate a new, young audience for American movies that carried over into Hollywood's renewal of the 1970s. Its combination of sex and violence with dynamic stars, social relevance, a traditional Hollywood genre, and an appeal to hip young audiences set the pace for many American movies to come. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide

John Wayne plays a lawman who has to deal with the problems of fatherhood in a big way in Cahill: United States Marshall. Wayne is J.D. Cahill, whose singular desire to track down law breakers strains his relationship with his two teenage sons --17-year-old Danny (Gary Grimes) and 12-year-old Billy Joe (Clay O'Brien). The film begins as Cahill is hot on the trail of a gang of outlaws. After the big showdown, he returns to town to discover that the local bank has been robbed. The sheriff and the deputy have been killed, and four bank robbers are imprisoned in the jail. He is stunned when he finds out that one of the robbers in jail is Cahill's son Danny. It seems that during Cahill's absence from home, his two sons have been enticed into a criminal life by nefarious outlaw Abe Fraser (George Kennedy). ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Carnival of Thrills is a 2 hour episode of the no-brainer TV series Dukes of Hazzard. Bo Duke (John Schneider) falls for beautiful carnival owner Robin Matson. Upon unraveling himself from her little finger, Bo agrees to perform a death-defying stunt. Matson convinces him to jump his beloved hot rod, the "General Lee", over 32 cars. Luke Duke (Tom Wopat) is determined to stop his brother before he has to scrape him off his windshield. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

John Ford's last western film, Cheyenne Autumn was allegedly produced to compensate for the hundreds of Native Americans who had bitten the dust in Ford's earlier films (that was the director's story, anyway). Set in 1887, the film recounts the defiant migration of 300 Cheyennes from their reservation in Oklahoma territory to their original home in Wyoming. They have done this at the behest of chiefs Little Wolf (Ricardo Montalban) and Dull Knife (Gilbert Roland), peaceful souls who have been driven to desperate measures because the US government has ignored their pleas for food and shelter. Since the Cheyennes' trek is in defiance of their treaty, Captain Thomas Archer (Richard Widmark), who agrees with the Indians in principle, reluctantly leads his troops in pursuit of the tribe. While there was never any intention to shed blood, the white press finds it politically expedient to distort the Cheyennes' action into a declaration of war. Thanks to the cruelties of such chauvinistic whites as Captain Oscar Wessels (Karl Malden), the Cheyennes are forced to defend themselves--and whenever Indians take arms against whites in the 1880s, it's usually misrepresented as a massacre. Only the intervention of US secretary of the interior Carl Schurz (Edward G. Robinson) prevents the hostilities from erupting into wholesale bloodshed. Based on a novel by Mari Sandoz, Cheyenne Autumn is a cinematic elegy--not only for the beleaguered Cheyennes, but for John Ford's fifty years in pictures. It is weakest when arbitrarily throwing in a wearisome romance between Richard Widmark and pacifistic schoolmarm Carroll Baker, who out of sympathy for the Indians has joined them in their 1500-mile westward journey. When the Warner Bros. people decided that the film ran too long, they chopped out the wholly unnecessary but very funny episode involving a poker-obsessed Wyatt Earp (James Stewart). Contrary to popular belief, this episode was included in the earliest non-roadshow prints of Cheyenne Autumn; the scene was excised only when the film went into its second and third runs in 1966 (it has since been restored). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Canadian actress Kate Reid plays a lady p.i. in Death Among Friends. Kate is hired to solve the murder of a multimillionaire financier. As tipped off by the title, she need look no farther than the dead man's circle of friends. Refreshingly, both the heroine and her police contact, John Anderson, are well into middle age, rather than being depicted as mindless hunks of cheese- and beefcake. Intended as the pilot for a weekly series, Death Among Friends was first telecast May 20, 1975. The film was later syndicated as Mrs. R-Death Among Friends. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Director Leslie Selander pulls out all the stops in this the last of RKO's Tim Holt Westerns. A wounded parolee, Carver (Walter Reed), hires stagecoach operators Tim and Chito (Richard Martin) to drive him to Mexico. En route, they encounter Emily (Joan Dixon), the local schoolmarm, who recognizes Carver as the man who embezzled 100,000 dollars from her father, a banker who chose suicide rather than face disgrace. But there are plenty others aware of Carver's secret, including his unscrupulous lawyer, Bronson (John Dehner); his greedy girlfriend, Roxie (Dorothy Patrick); and Roxie's newest beau, Dave Warwick (Clayton Moore). Soon everyone is holed up in a deserted roadhouse -- whose owner, Burley (Michael Mark), has mysteriously disappeared. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide