Reta Shaw Movies

This fast-paced Disney endeavor stars Kim Richards and Ike Eisenmann as two adolescents with acute psychic powers. The kids are actually space aliens, but suffer from amnesia and are unaware of their origins. Pursued by greedy business-mogul Ray Milland, who wants to harness their special powers for his benefit, Kim and Ike are rescued by likeable camper Eddie Albert. He and the kids escape to the mountain of the title when Albert's RV suddenly acquires the power of flight. In 1978, the film spawned the sequel Return from Witch Mountain. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Returning from a fishing trip, Roy (Kevin Tighe), John (Randolph Mantooth) and Chet (Tim Donnelly) find themselves back on the job even before they return to Rampart. Driving through a remote stretch of land, the three firefighters come across a burning car, in which three joyriding teenagers are trapped. While rescuing the trio, John is bitten by a rattlesnake--and before he can call the hospital for medical backup, he loses his walkie-talkie. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A charming doctor who kills his female patients is discovered by a private detective in this made for television movie. ~ Rovi

Barbara Eden plays a dual role in this episode, as both Jeannie and Jeannie's gray-haired, bespectacled mother. A box of enchanted "Pipchick" candy from Jeannie's mom has a curious effect on Tony (Larry Hagman), endowing him with super strength. Convinced that Tony has created the candy himself, Dr. Bellows (Hayden Rorke) demands that our hero whip up another batch. Unfortuanetly, the recipe loses something in translation, and as a result of eating Tony's candy everyone begins acting out their innermost fantasies--including a wildly uninhibited Dr. Bellows, who leaves Cocoa Beach behind to embark upon a whale hunt! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Luther Heggs (Don Knotts) is a typesetter at a newspaper who longs for a chance to be a reporter. Editor Beckett (Dick Sargent) gives Luther his big break and assigns him to spend the night in a house generally considered to be haunted. The situation allows a broad canvas for Knotts to react to sight gags with the special brand of eye-popping nervousness that made him a star. Former Playboy Bunny Joan Staley plays the pretty girlfriend of star reporter Ollie Skip Homeier. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

An American girl finds love and laughter in the City of Lights in this romantic comedy. Maggie Scott (Ann-Margret) works as an assistant to Irene Chase (Edie Adams), a fashion purchaser for a large clothing store. Irene sends Maggie to Paris as her representative for the annual fashion shows of the major European designers; Irene has an ulterior motive, as her son Ted Barclay (Chad Everett) is infatuated with Maggie and she wants to keep him away from her. While in Paris, Maggie strikes up a romance with Marc Fontaine (Louis Jourdan), a handsome Frenchman who was once Irene's boyfriend. However, Maggie is also being pursued by American reporter Herb Stone (Richard Crenna). To add to the confusion, Ted decides to fly to Paris in an effort to win Maggie's heart once and for all. Jazz fans will want to keep an ear open for performances by Count Basie and Mongo Santamaria. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

In this romantic comedy, an aspiring actress pays her bills by working as a maid for various households. One of her employers is a wealthy and prominent publisher. After accidentally running into each other a number of times on the New York streets without recognizing each other, they begin to fall in love. She wants to take him home, but she is ashamed of her humble quarters. Believing that the publisher is out of town, she decides to take the lover to that apartment and pretend that it is hers. The lover/ publisher did have a business trip, but it was canceled. He decides to go along with her ruse and pretends that he has never been in his own apartment before. The trouble is, he now has no home to go home to; instead, he begins bunking with his business partner. In the end, both would-be lovers learn the truth, but they still refuse to tell each other that they know. Things get a little crazy, especially when the maid has all her girl friends dress up as hookers and come for a wild party at his apartment. He has the last laugh when they end up in jail. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Bumbling Aunt Clara pays another visit to the Stephens family. Taking Clara at her word that she doesn't want to be pampered, Samantha and Darrin assign the old dear to babysit a pair of precocious children. This turns out to be a big mistake when Clara casually informs the kiddies that she is a witch -- then sets about to prove it. First shown on April 1, 1965, "There's No Witch Like an Old Witch" was written by Ted Sherdeman and Jane Klove. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The satire in Evelyn Waugh's darkly comic novel The Loved One was originally double-edged. The book was not only an attack on the Southern California funeral industry but also a lampoon of Hollywood's "British colony," those clannish, cricket-playing English actors of years gone by who bemoaned the artificiality of Tinseltown while eagerly accepting the demeaning and insignificant movie roles they were offered. The film version of The Loved One, anxious to live up to its ad-campaign promise of containing "something to offend everybody," downplays the British-colony business (save for the presence of the magnificent Robert Morley) and pumps up the "death" gags. Innocent British poet Dennis Barlow (Robert Morse) falls in love with funeral-home cosmetician Aimee Thanatogenos (Anjanette Comer), who in turn is loved by prissy funeral director Mr. Joyboy (Rod Steiger). The latter lives with his obese mother (Ayllene Gibbons), whose eating sequence is far more hilarious (and more tasteless) than many of the film's calculatedly "black" jokes. A huge guest-star cast is headed by Jonathan Winters in a dual role as a funeral home manager and his covetous twin brother, who operates an elaborate pet cemetery. Musician Paul Williams is also on hand as a 13-year-old aeronautics genius who develops a method of sending corpses into "eternal orbit" (a plot device that Waugh neglected to include in his novel). Film historian William K. Everson has commented that The Loved One is one of the best and most underrated comedies of the 1960s. For others, especially those who might feel guilty chuckling at the sight of Anjanette Comer committing suicide with an embalming needle, it's purely a matter of taste...or lack of same. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

As the staff of "The Alan Brady Show" prepare for the series' annual summer hiatus, Rob (Dick Van Dyke) flashes back to his first year as Brady's head writer. On the occasion of the summer layoff, Rob suddenly found himself unemployed and virtually penniless -- and with a pregnant Laura (Mary Tyler Moore) at home. The remainder of the episode involves the various face-saving stratagems concocted by Rob to hide the fact that he's out of work...and to pick up some spare change on the sly. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Long resistant to film adaptations of her Mary Poppins books, P.L. Travers finally succumbed to the entreaties of Walt Disney, and the result is often considered the finest of Disney's personally supervised films. The Travers stories are bundled together to tell the story of the Edwardian-era British Banks family: the banker father (David Tomlinson), suffragette mother (Glynis Johns), and the two "impossible" children (Karen Dotrice and Matthew Garber). The kids get the attention of their all-business father by bedevilling every new nanny in the Banks household. Whem Mr. Banks advertises conventionally for another nanny, the kids compose their own ad, asking for someone with a little kindness and imagination. Mary Poppins (Julie Andrews in her screen debut) answers the children's ad by arriving at the Banks home from the skies, parachuting downward with her umbrella. She immediately endears herself to the children. The next day they meet Mary's old chum Bert (Dick Van Dyke), currently employed as a sidewalk artist. Mary, Bert, and the children hop into one of Bert's chalk drawings and learn the nonsense song "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" in a cartoon countryside. Later, they pay a visit to Bert's Uncle Albert (Ed Wynn), who laughs so hard that he floats to the ceiling. Mr. Banks is pleased that his children are behaving better, but he's not happy with their fantastic stories. To show the children what the real world is like, he takes them to his bank. A series of disasters follow which result in his being fired from his job. Mary Poppins' role in all this leads to some moments when it is possible to fear that all her good work will be undone, but like the magical being she is, all her "mistakes" lead to a happy result by the end of the film. In 2001, Mary Poppins was rereleased in a special "sing-along" edition with subtitles added to the musical numbers so audiences could join in with the onscreen vocalists. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this comedy, the head of a United Nations department suddenly becomes a father when he stumbles across an abandoned baby in one of the halls. He tries to find a home for the darling and suddenly finds himself surrounded by assorted exotic beauties all trying to win the baby for their country. In the end, though, the bachelor takes the babe for his own. Songs include: "So Wide the World," "Fais Do Do," and "A Global Affair." ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Charles Lane makes his first series appearance as Mr. Barnsdahl, the banker in charge of Lucy's account. After an argument between the two in which Barnsdahl huffily insists that the bank never makes a mistake, Lucy (Lucille Ball) closes out her Christmas account by writing a 20 dollar check--only to receive two thousand dollars! Naturally, she intends to return the money, but first she decides to teach Barnsdahl a lesson, and hides the excess cash in a candy box. The fun really begins when Lucy's kids, unaware of their mom's scheme, take the box to a local carnival and disappear into the crowd! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi