Steven Ritch Movies

Released in April of 1962 to take advantage of the new baseball season and the enthusiasm surrounding some of its better-known players, this sports-oriented children's story by Walter Doniger centers around some ill-advised bragging by a young Little Leaguer. Hutch Lawton (Brian Russell) has just told his friends that he and his Dad are good buddies with all-time baseball greats Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle. This fib soon gets him in plenty of hot water as he is forced to search out his heroes at spring training in Florida and make a plea for help. Along with appearances by the Yankee's two top players are pitcher Whitey Ford and coach Ralph Houk. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Fairly fast-paced, with only a lull here and there, this standard thriller by director Irving Lerner was one of his most successful films. It stars (Vince Edwards) as Vince, an escaped convict who grabs a metal vial from the prison's hospital before he makes his break. He thinks it is his ticket to the easy life because it contains heroin. Instead, the vial contains radioactive cobalt that could first sicken and then kill anyone who comes in close contact with it. The police are caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. If they publicly announce a vial of deadly cobalt is on the loose, in the hands of an escaped convict, they might touch off a stampede. On the other hand, if they keep it a secret, who knows how many people will die. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Claude (Vince Edwards) is an educated, respectable young man with a goal in life -- to buy a house that he has his eye on; but to do that on the money he makes in his office job could take 25 years, so he chooses to embark on a new profession, as a hired assassin. A cold-blooded, thoroughly professional killer, he does his work quickly and efficiently and establishes himself as a top trouble-shooter for the particular mob that employs him, even disposing of his immediate superior when he becomes a liability to the higher-ups. But then he takes a new contract to dispose of the key witness in a federal trial; he flies out to Glendale, CA, and meets the two local hoods, George (Herschel Bernardi) and Marc (Phillip Pine), who are supposed to show him the hit, and it takes their getting used to his methodical way of working, which includes days of seeing the sights and recreation just to see if they're being followed. All goes well until Claude discovers that the target he is to kill is a woman. As he explains, women are too unpredictable in their behavior, and this particular woman, Billie Williams (Caprice Toriel), a nightclub singer and pianist, is particularly erratic. Claude is almost ready to abandon the hit, but he doesn't want to walk out on a contract, especially as that could get him killed. He tries one basic method of assassination that's very clever but also too dependent on events he can't predict, and it fails; then he rigs a hit with George and Marc's help that seems letter-perfect and foolproof, until he discovers that it failed because of the intervention of someone -- another woman -- that no one could have predicted. Finally, he's forced to get Marc and George out of the way before they kill him, and he goes for the target once more. It's then that we discover the one serious chink in Claude's seemingly impervious, steely psychic armor. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Not to be confused with the film noir classic Thunder Road, Plunder Road is nonetheless a fine little thriller on its own. Gene Raymond stars as the head of a robbery gang, whose latest caper involves the heist of a gold shipment from a US Mint train. To throw the cops off the track, the gang splits up and goes off in three directions. Two of the gang's gold-laden trucks are captured by the police, but the third makes it all the way to LA. At this point, Raymond melts down the gold and disguises it as fittings for his luxury car. On the verge of getting away scot-free, Raymond is involved in a freeway accident. Cast as Gene Raymond's gun moll is soap-opera favorite Jeanne Cooper (the mother of actor Corbin Bernsen). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Columbia's The Werewolf is not nearly as generic as its title would suggest: in fact, it is one of the better films of its kind. Steven Ritch plays Duncan Marsh, who after being seriously injured in a car wreck is used as a guinea pig by a pair of none too scrupulous scientists (S. John Launer and George M. Lynn). Seeking a cure for radiation poisoning, the scientists inject Marsh with wolf serum (what this has to do with radiation poisioning is never fully explained). Before long, Marsh is a full-fledged lycanthrope, wreaking havoc in the Big Bear Lake region. Some truly startling vignettes--including one lulu of a sequence in a jail cell--lift this Sam Katzman production well above the norm. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this melodrama, an American soldier finds himself by two private eyes hired by the wealthy German father of the man he wrongly killed eight years ago. The female detective begins working at the killer's drive-in; eventually she seduces him into marrying her. At that point the other private eye appears claiming to be her estranged brother. He gets the couple interested in a scheme whereby they all might split $200,000 in Berlin. The killer goes for the ruse, returns to Germany and finds himself prosecuted for the murder. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Columbia Pictures elevated a run-of-the-mill B-western supporting player, Marshall Reed, to the title role in this equally run-of-the-mill western serial released in 15 chapters. Like most serials in the '50s, Riding with Buffalo Bill consisted of quite a bit of budget-stretching stock footage telling a highly fictionalized account of Buffalo Bill Cody aiding a group of ranchers in their defeat of a local crime lord. The serial's assistant director, Leonard Katzman, later produced the long-running television series Gunsmoke and Dallas. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Valley of the Headhunters was number eleven in Columbia's "Jungle Jim" series. Johnny Weissmuller returns as Jim, while his leading lady on this safari is Christine Larson. Things get under way when Jim is assigned to help a government representative attain the mineral rights to a tribal valley. Meanwhile, a gang of diamond smugglers discovers that the coveted land is rich with oil. The crooks persuade the villagers to pose as headhunters, thereby scaring off Jim and the other white men. Only slightly less believable than the plotline of Valley of the Headhunters are the antics of Jungle Jim's faithful chimp Tamba, who at one point gets "drunk" on a bottle of ether (the slow-motion gags which ensue are straight out of the "Little Rascals" lexicon). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide