Janice Rule Movies

This is a winning, upbeat story about a Hispanic kid from the streets who suffers through a battle against cancer and discrimination at the same time. When Neekos Valdez (Esai Morales) was swiping a radio from a pickup one night, he was accidentally dragged along the street behind the pickup. Rushed to the hospital, the doctors treat him but also discover he has cancerous tumors in his abdomen. Shocked into an awareness of the impermanence of human life, Neekos puts up a valiant fight against the cancer, follows his prescribed regimen, and in the process, he makes friends with another cancer patient, Jack Marti (Chuck Bail), an ex-boxer. When up-tight hospital administrators discover that Neekos is the son of an illegal immigrant, they decide that deportation proceedings should be started against him. His social worker and his doctor do the best they can to help him, but they have no authority over the hospital administration. His only hope may be Jack, the one man who was inspired by his fight against cancer, and the one man with enough courage to step into the ring when others see the contender as too formidable to face.
~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Word is about the newly discovered text that is allegedly written by the younger brother of Jesus Christ. It the document is genuine, it would throw the world's theological community into chaos. David Janssen plays an archaeologist who travels to Italy to verify the document's origins. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide

Dan August: The Jealousy Factor relates two stories of two dead men, whose murders are passed off as crimes of random violence. In both instances, detective August (Burt Reynolds) deduces that jealousy rather than happenstance may have been at the bottom of the crime. The most suspicious case is the death of a wealthy man allegedly killed by a burglar, with Janice Rule guest-starring as a markedly nonmournful widow. Offered as a "TV movie" in the late 1970s, The Jealousy Factor was actually comprised of two separate episodes from the 1971-72 TV series Dan August. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Part spoof and part "straight," Gumshoe comes off as an affectionate tribute to the hard-boiled detective films of yore. Albert Finney stars as Eddie Ginley, a Liverpool bingo-caller and erstwhile comedian who has been weaned on the novels of Raymond Chandler and Dashiel Hammett. Fancying himself an ace detective, Ginley quits his job to form his own agency. Before long, he is involved in a complex mystery with decided echoes of The Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep, replete with femme fatale (Janice Rule) and sinister fat man (George Silver). Armed with little more than a slick line of patter, Ginley plunges into this baffling case, while his level-headed brother (Frank Finlay) and sister-in-law (Billie Whitelaw) try to talk him out of it. Despite its satirical content, Gumshoe turns out to be a fascinating mystery yarn on its own terms. Albert Finney also produced the film, while none other than Andrew Lloyd Webber supplied the musical score. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Made for television, Trial Run is a slick, cynical tale of blind ambition. James Franciscus plays a young attorney who'll do anything to reach the top. To this end, Franciscus uses not only his employer Leslie Nielsen, but his faithful secretary Diane Baker, who has long sacrificed her own happiness for Franciscus advancement. Our "hero" finally comes acropper as a result of his torrid affair with Nielsen's wife Janice Rule. The ending of this one is a beaut, which is why we're not divulging any more details. Trial Run first aired January 18, 1969. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Now working as a trucker under the alias "Stan Dyson", Kimble (David Janssen) falls in love with his company's dispatcher Barbara Wells (Janice Rule). What Kimble doesn't know is that Barbara is a parolee who must return to her jail cell every evening. Nor is he aware of this arrangement when Barbara breaks out of jail to join Kimble at a lakeside resort--with parole officer Art Meredith (Steve Ihnat) and the relentless Lt. Gerard (Barry Morse) hot on the couple's trail. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this, the third in the Matt Helm special-agent series, Dean Martin plays Helm who's called to save those aboard a hijacked U.S. spacecraft. Ambushers is generally regarded as the weakest of the Helm films, lacking inspiration at most levels. ~ All Movie Guide

Matt Weaver (George Segal) returns home after fighting for the South in the Civil War to his home in the New Mexico territory. He discovers that in his absence his ancestral house and land have been sold by Sam Brewster (Pat Hingle), an unscrupulous land developer. Matt tries to kill Sam, but when the attempt fails, Matt barricades himself in the place he once called home. Sam sends for the colorful hired gun Jules Gaspard D'Estaing (Yul Brynner), a well-educated dandy whose mother was a black slave and father was a Creole. Jules is as adept with card and piano playing as he is with a six gun. When Jules gets drunk and tears up the town, Sam tries to make a truce with Matt to get rid of the deadly drifter. Janice Rule also appears, along with Bert Freed in his familiar role as the local sheriff. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

While visiting the apartment house where she grew up, schoolteacher Helen Foley (Janice Rule) makes the acquaintance of a strange little girl named Markie (Terry Burnham). It gradually develops that Markie holds a clue as to the identity of the person who murdered Helen's mother many years earlier. Without saying any more, we can note that the supporting cast includes Sheppard Strudwick and Michael Fox; also appearing is a cute child actress named Suzanne Cupito, who enjoyed a substantial adult career under the name Morgan Brittany. Scripted by Rod Serling and graced with a subtly sinister musical score by Jerry Goldsmith, "Nightmare as a Child" was the April 29, 1960, installment of Twilight Zone. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The premiere episode of Have Gun, Will Travel finds cultured gunslinger Paladin (Richard Boone) already headquartered at a fancy hotel in San Francisco, casually thumbing through a pile of newspapers in search of an assignment. Heading to New Mexico, he offers his services to wealthy rancher Jesse Reade (Harry Shannon), accepting his usual thousand-dollar fee to head South of the Border to rescue Reade's daughter Nancy (Janice Rule) from the clutches of bandit Dave Enderby (a pre-Hawaii Five-O Jack Lord). Risking his life to infiltrate the outlaw-controlled town of Perdido, Paladin finds that Nancy is in no mood to be rescued; she is in love with Enderby, and in fact is now the bandit's wife. Now Paladin must figure a way to disillusion Nancy and prove Enderby to be a thorough rat--and to escape safely from Perdido in the process. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Battle Shock and War Shock were the titles bestowed by British distributors upon the Paul Henreid-directed psychological drama A Woman's Devotion. Ralph Meeker stars as Trevor Stevenson, an emotionally scarred World War II veteran who has channelled his fears and phobias into his painting. At present, he is in Acapulco on his honeymoon with bride, Stella (Janice Rule). Shortly after Trevor's arrival, two women are murdered. The audience is presented with a "lady or the tiger" situation, with clues pointing to Trevor's guilt or innocence depending upon one's point-of-view. Henreid cagily avoids telling us the whole story -- continuing to withhold information right up to the grim finale. Trevor's behavior in the climactic scenes is an interesting precursor to the "crazed Vietnam vet" school of drama. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Rogue's March was described by one observer as an eastern western. A mustachioed Peter Lawford stars as Capt. Dion Lenbridge of His Majesty's Service. Branded a traitor, Lenbridge is cashiered from the regiment. In fact, Lenbridge isn't a traitor, but he spends the next 84 minutes proving it. He makes it his mission in life to rid India of the insidious influence of Russia, whose leaders intend to establish a stronghold in the Jewel of the British crown. Though the Russians depicted herein are of the Czarist variety, they spout curiously communistic dialogue, a reflection of the Red paranoia then prevalent in Hollywood. With the grudging assistance of Captain Thomas Garron (Richard Greene), Lenbridge valiantly thwarts the rascally Russians' schemes during a climactic desert battle. Janice Rule is on hand as the nominal love interest, while Leo G. Carroll does a C. Aubrey Smith routine as Lenbridge's stiff-upper-lip father. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide