Harry Shannon Movies

Stanley Kramer directed this paranoid thriller involving a murderer who is inexplicably released from prison by a mysterious organization. Gene Hackman is Roy Tucker, serving time in San Quentin when he's busted out by a secret organization in return for having to assassinate an unnamed person. Roy travels from San Francisco to Spain trying to find out why he was released from prison and who he has to kill. His only lead is the organization is run by a collection of unknown people, collectively known as "They." ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

Rock 'n roll king Elvis Presley stars as Glenn Talbot, a country boy with a problem temper and a yen for literary greatness in this typical Presley vehicle directed by Philip Dunne. After Glenn is sent packing by his father for mixing it up one too many times with his brother, the court makes him a ward of his uncle. His inner turmoil leads him into therapy with the older and very attractive Irene (Hope Lange), a patient-doctor relationship that is misconstrued by their small town. The two spend a platonic night in the same room in a motel, but no one is believing it was innocent. Glenn's romantic interests include Noreen (Tuesday Weld), with whom he shares a drink or two or more, and a song, and Betty Lee (Millie Perkins). Between the singing and carousing and fist fights, it still looks like a happy resolution looms large on the horizon. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

After seizing control of the booze traffic in Chicago, Capone lieutenant Meyer Wartel (Robert Middleton) oversteps his bounds by murdering a reporter who had been crusading against him. The only person who can "finger" Wartel is Herman Kihn (George Voskovec), the gunsmith who fashioned the silencer used on the murder weapon. Elliot Ness (Robert Stack) advises Kihn to testify against Wartel, warning him that there is already a contract on his life. Meanwhile, professional assassin Pittsburg Phil (Rip Torn), a man truly in love with his work, prepares to pull off what he considers his "Masterpiece" by bumping off Kihn in full view of Ness and his fellow Untouchables--without making a sound. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Lloyd Nolan appears in this episode as the first of several actors who would portray notorious mob boss George "Bugs" Moran on The Untouchables (later Morans included Robert Wilke and Harry Morgan). To sway the outcome of a truckers-union election, Bugs kidnaps the son of union leader Larry Halloran (Jack Warden). When Halloran goes to the Untouchables for help, he is told that kidnapping is not yet a federal offense. Even so, the Feds have a plan to trap Moran: let Bugs win the election, the better to give him enough rope to hang himself. With Elliot Ness (Robert Stack) on assignment in Washington, the plan is overseen by his stalwart colleague Martin Flaherty (Jerry Paris). This episode was originally listed in TV Guide as "The Velvet Touch". ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This baroque nightmare of a south-of-the-border mystery is considered to be one of the great movies of Orson Welles, who both directed and starred in it. On honeymoon with his new bride, Susan (Janet Leigh), Mexican-born policeman Mike Vargas (Charlton Heston) agrees to investigate a bomb explosion. In so doing, he incurs the wrath of local police chief Hank Quinlan (Welles), a corrupt, bullying behemoth with a perfect arrest record. Vargas suspects that Quinlan has planted evidence to win his past convictions, and he isn't about to let the suspect in the current case be railroaded. Quinlan, whose obsession with his own brand of justice is motivated by the long-ago murder of his wife, is equally determined to get Vargas out of his hair, and he makes a deal with local crime boss Uncle Joe Grandi (Akim Tamiroff) to frame Susan on a drug rap, leading to one of the movie's many truly harrowing sequences. Touch of Evil dissects the nature of good and evil in a hallucinatory, nightmarish ambience, helped by the shadow-laden cinematography of Russell Metty and by the cast, which, along with Tamiroff and Welles includes Charlton Heston as a Mexican; Marlene Dietrich, in a brunette wig, as a brittle madam who delivers the movie's unforgettable closing words; Mercedes McCambridge as a junkie; and Dennis Weaver as a tremulous motel clerk. Touch of Evil has been released with four different running times -- 95 minutes for the 1958 original, which was taken away from Welles and brutally cut by the studio; 108 minutes and 114 minutes in later versions; and 111 minutes in the 1998 restoration. Based on a 58-page memo written by Welles after he was barred from the editing room during the film's original post-production, this restoration, among numerous other changes, removed the opening titles and Henry Mancini's music from the opening crane shot, which in either version ranks as one of the most remarkably extended long takes in movie history. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

When Cecil B. DeMille was set to direct a re-make of his 1938 swashbuckler The Buccaneer and suddenly became ill, his son-in-law, Anthony Quinn, jumped into DeMille's jodhpurs. In this version, Yul Brynner plays the starring role of debonair pirate Jean Lafitte, who is contacted by General Andrew Jackson (Charlton Heston) to come to the aid of the United States when the British attack New Orleans during the War of 1812. Lafitte immediately falls in love with Annette Claiborne (Inger Stevens), the daughter of William Claiborne (E.G. Marshall), the first governor of Louisiana. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

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, Rovi

Lensed in Republic's widescreen Naturama process, this modest little western would seem to be better suited to a standard-ratio screen. After a four-year absence, Johnny Shattuck (Ben Cooper) returns home to find that ex-rustler Dean Cannary (Jim Davis) has his eyes on the Shattuck family farm. To force Johnny off the property, Cannary has fenced off a formerly accessible water hole. Unable to best Cannary through legal means, Johnny reluctant prepares for a one-on-one showdown. Top billing in Duel at Apache Wells is bestowed upon Anna Maria Alberghetti, making her first dramatic, nonsinging film appearance. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

James Mitchell stars as a gunslinger-turned-parson in The Peacemaker. Arriving in a hostile western town, Rev. Terrall Butler (Mitchell) intends to win over the townsfolk with faith rather than force. His religiosity is immediately put to the test when Butler tries to mediate a feud between the local ranchers and farmers. He then must face down the vicious gunmen hired by railroad mogul Gray Arnett (Herbert Patterson), who intends to lay his tracks through the territory despite the protests of the farmers. The Peacemaker was the first and last effort from Hal B. Makelim Productions. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this upbeat drama, a reformed father returns to the Arkansas farm of his estranged family after having spent too many years living in the fast lane. Included in the family are his mute daughter and his baby son, whom he'd never seen. The father is determined to set things right and immediately begins fixing up the run-down farm. The film's climax occurs when the father, hearing screams, saves his heretofore mute daughter who has fallen into a mine shaft. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

During her brief stay at MGM, starlet Jarma Lewis received starring roles in two programmers. One of these was The Marauders, in which she appeared with Dan Duryea, Keenan Wynn and Jeff Richards. The bulk of the film's drama is handled by Richards, cast as a homesteader who refuses to move despite the threats of land baron Harry Shannon. After Shannon's death, the persecution of Richards is supervised by Dan Duryea, an unhinged frustrated soldier who fancies himself a second Napoleon. The looney Duryea manages to kill James Anderson, weak-willed husband of Jarma Lewis, with the help of hired gun Keenan Wynn. But Richards stands his ground, winning Jarma in the process. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Alfred Hitchcock's second directorial effort for his popular suspense anthology is one of the series' best ever episodes. Joseph Cotten stars as William Callew, a hard-nosed and hard-hearted businessman who holds in contempt such human failings as sentiment, pity, and tears. While racing to keep an appointment in New York, Callew is involved in a spectacular car accident. Awakening, he finds that he is completely paralyzed, unable to move or speak -- though we hear his every thought on the soundtrack. Everyone who comes across Callew assumes that he is dead, including the police and the coroner...and as the episode draws to its conclusion, the horrified Callew is being wheeled into the autopsy room of the morgue! "Breakdown" was re-filmed for the 1985 revival of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, with John Heard in the Joseph Cotten role. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi