Donna Reed

As season eight of Dallas gets under way, Bobby Ewing (Patrick Duffy) painfully convalesces from the gunshot wound that felled him at the end of season seven. The most likely suspect would seem to be Cliff Barnes (Ken Kercheval), the brother of Bobby's ex-wife, Pam (Victoria Principal), but in fact the would-be killer is Cliff and Pam's obsessive half-sister, Katherine (Morgan Brittany), who was incensed that Bobby had spurned her in favor of his fiancée, Jenna (Priscilla Presley). Had Katherine but waited a while, she could have saved a bullet; Bobby breaks up with Jenna, who ends up wedding a former lover, Renaldo Marchetta (Daniel Pilon) -- and is then accused of Marchetta's murder! In other romantic developments, despite all of the evil J.R. Ewing's (Larry Hagman) efforts, his mother, Miss Ellie (Barbara Bel Geddes), has tied the matrimonial knot with Clayton Barlow (Howard Keel), millionaire father of Dusty Barlow, the former lover of J.R.'s wife, Sue Ellen (Victoria Principal). But is it really Miss Ellie who walks down the aisle? Well, technically, it is -- but it isn't the same actress who has been playing the character since Dallas began. Citing illness and exhaustion, Barbara Bel Geddes had left Dallas at the end of its seventh season. Her replacement is Donna Reed, light years removed from the innocuous 1950s sitcom that bore her name in the title. Getting back to the Miss Ellie-Barlow nuptials, all is not peach blossoms and roses. It turns out that Clayton has a demented sister named Jessica (Alexis Smith) -- who very nearly commits wholesale murder before she's caught and institutionalized.

Newcomers to the cast this season include Joshua Harris as Christopher Ewing, Bobby and Pamela's adopted son; Jenilee Harrison as cousin Jamie Ewing, who is destined to wed Cliff Barnes after aligning with him to wrest a piece of Ewing Oil from J.R.; and Deborah Shelton as Mandy Winger, who arouses the libido of both J.R. and Cliff, but who definitely prefers one over the other. Conversely, two of Dallas' stalwart leading players make their exits this season: Charlene Tilton as Lucy Ewing (though she'd eventually return), and more spectacularly, Patrick Duffy as Bobby Ewing. Honoring Duffy's insistence that he wanted to leave the series to pursue different roles, the writers contrived to have Bobby get killed while trying to save Pamela from a deranged hit-and-run driver (Katherine Wentworth again!). Thus, the season ends with the hospitalized Bobby "flatlining" -- thereby setting the stage for the series' notorious "dream" season. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This attenuated adaptation of Helen Van Slyke's novel stars Donna Reed (her first TV appearance in 12 years) as a widow with financial and domestic problems. Her adult daughter Stephanie Zimbalist has turned to drugs; her sons Michael Shannon and Tim Hutton have less severe but no less time-consuming personal difficulties; and her mother Mildred Dunnock is aloof and remonstrative. In addition, Reed is torn between two loves: old flame Efrem Zimbalist Jr., and doctor John Phillip Law, who is young enough to be her son. The above-mentioned plot contrivances would seem to be sufficient to fill the four hours (and two parts) of The Best Place to Be several times over; still, there's time enough left over for a tragedy to strike Reed's family before she finally settles down with the elder Zimbalist. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This video contains a star-studded broadcast of the 1959 Emmy Awards Ceremony. It also contains a lively comedy short from 1931. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The breathtakingly beautiful Technicolor cinematography of Irving Glassberg is but one of the many small pleasures of the big-budget western Backlash. Set in post-Civil War Arizona, the film stars Richard Widmark as Jim Slater, who hopes to prove that his down-and-out father (John McIntire) was not involved in a gold robbery. To prove this, Slater has to find the money, which is also the goal of Karyl Orton (Donna Reed), the supposed widow of one of the thieves. Eventually, Slater discovers that his father is every bit as rotten as the law claims he is, though he can take some comfort in the fact that Karyl is now in love with him. As in his earlier Bad Day at Black Rock, Backlash director John Sturges is more concerned with building tension than with overt displays of wanton violence. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Viewers familiar with the 1996 Mel Gibson blockbuster Ransom may be disappointed that there are no smirking villains, car chases, or bloody fistfights in the original 1956 version of the same story. Even so, the earlier Ransom! has much to offer on a purely dramatic level. Based on the Richard Maibaum-Cyril Hume TV play Fearful Decision, the film stars Glenn Ford as self-made industrialist David Stannard. When his son is kidnapped and held for 500,000 dollars ransom, Stannard at first sets about to cooperate with the abductors and to raise the necessary funds. Somewhere along the line, however, Stannard's outrage erupts and boils over. Buying air time on a local TV station, he pulls out the half-million dollars, then informs the kidnappers that they'll never get their hands on a single penny. He further threatens to use the money as a reward for the kidnappers' capture, dead or alive, should any harm befall his son. Despite the protests of his wife, Edith (Donna Reed), and the admonishments of his friends, family, business associates and even the police, Stannard sticks fast to his decision...but will he live to regret it? The boy's abductors are never seen in Ransom!; instead, the film concentrates on the multitude of ramifications (including a few political ones) stemming from David Stannard's bold stance. As such, the 1956 Ransom! is in its own way as tense and exciting as the more elaborate 1996 remake. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Steve Allen makes his dramatic film debut in The Benny Goodman Story. Outside of Goodman's conflicts with his parents over his career choice, and his early frustration over not being able to play his kind of music, the film tends to be more a series of musical highlights than a biography. The film features guest appearances by Gene Krupa, Lionel Hampton, Teddy Wilson, Harry James, Martha Tilton, Ziggy Elman, and Sammy Davis Sr. (as Fletcher Henderson). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Three Hours to Kill is a "message" Western that manages to entertain without preaching. Jim Guthrie (Dana Andrews), unjustly accused of murder, is forced out of town by an angry mob. After several tough years living off the land, Guthrie returns to clear his name. Fearing that Guthrie is out for blood, the townsfolk arrange a "necktie party." The one person who might show some compassion is ex-fiancée Laurie Mastin (Donna Reed), who'd been left pregnant by Guthrie and had married another man on the rebound. But Laurie's brother was the murder victim, so she's just as determined to rid the world of Guthrie as everyone else. With the help of sympathetic Chris Plumber (Dianne Foster), Guthrie traps the real murderer. The mentality of mob rule is exposed for all its ugliness in Three Hours to Kill, ironic in that real-life Hollywood had been governed by mob pressure to enforce the Blacklist during the same period. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

John Payne stars as legendary pirate Barbarossa -- aka Redbeard -- in Raiders of the Seven Seas. Capturing a Spanish galleon almost single-handedly, Barbarossa claims haughty Contessa Alida (Donna Reed) as his own property. Engaged to marry naval officer Alfredo (Gerald Mohr), Alida despises Barbarossa, but she changes her mind when she finds out what a louse Alfredo can be. All loose plot strands are neatly tied up during the swashbuckling finale, wherein Barbarossa leads an attack on Havana. The supporting cast of Raiders of the Seven Seas is populated with such familiar faces as Lon Chaney Jr., Henry Brandon, and Frank DeKova. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

"Winning isn't everything -- it's the only thing." These words were spoken not by Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi but by Steve Williams, the fictional college athletics instructor played by John Wayne in Trouble Along the Way. Recently divorced, Williams has trouble finding a job due to his inability to get along with his superiors. If he doesn't find work soon, he'll lose custody of his daughter Carole (Sherry Jackson). Meanwhile, St. Anthony's College, heavily in debt, may have to close its doors. Father Burke, rector of St. Anthony's, reasons that the school could get back on its feet if it had a winning football team, thereby securing the support of the alumni. Thus, against his better judgment, Father Burke hires the troublesome Steve Williams, who'll stop at nothing to assemble a winning team. Somehow, Williams has to turn into a regular human being, and that's where social worker Alice Singleton (Donna Reed) comes in. More sentimental than most Wayne vehicles, Trouble Along the Way is well worth the ride. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide