Mario Siletti Movies

This film is essentially the original pilot for the popular 1960s television series The Man from U.N.C.L.E. It was expanded to 92 minutes and shot in color for theatrical release. Robert Vaughn plays the master spy and adept action hero Napoleon Solo. He works for a shadowy supra-governmental enforcement agency called U.N.C.L.E. His partner is the suave Russian secret agent Illya Kuryakin (David McCallum). In this pilot, a sinister organization called W.A.S.P. assassinates the president of an African republic and his assistants. Solo is enlisted to stop W.A.S.P.'s plans to take over the country and turn it into a dictatorship. The plot and action proceed at lightning speed against the backdrop of a brewing Cold War superpower confrontation. Through a series of mishaps, a housewife, Elaine May Donaldson (Pat Crowley) is dragged into the fight and helps Solo thwart the coup attempt. Also released as a film in 1966 was another expanded episode from the TV series, The Spy with My Face. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide

Still in Europe,the Ricardos and the Mertzes decide to make the trip from Italy to the French Riviera by bicycle. The journey is painful enough for Lucy (Lucille Ball), who hasn't done all that much biking since her childhood (and who, of course, encounters the usual slapstick complications en route), but the pain really intensifies when she discovers that she's left her passport in her suitcase, which has been sent ahead to their French hotel room. Unable to convince the French and Italian border guards to bend the rules for her, Lucy is sure that things just simply can't get any worse -- but it turns out they certainly can. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This meticulous and unusually long cinemadaptation of Sloan Wilson's best-selling novel The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit stars Gregory Peck as an ex-army officer, pursuing a living as a TV writer in the postwar years. Hired by a major broadcasting network, Peck is assigned to write speeches for the network's president (Fredric March). Peck comes to realize that the president's success has come at the expense of personal happiness, and this leads Peck to ruminate on his own life. Extended flashbacks reveal that Peck had experienced a torrid wartime romance with Italian girl Marisa Pavan, a union that produced a child. Peck is torn between his responsibility to his illegitimate son and his current obligations towards his wife (Jennifer Jones), his children, and his employer. Among the many life-altering decisions made by Peck before the fade-out is his determination to seek out a job that will allow him to spend more time with his family, even if it means a severe cut in salary. The superb hand-picked supporting cast of The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit includes Ann Harding as March's wife, Keenan Wynn as the man who informs Peck that he'd fathered an Italian child, Henry Daniell as a detached executive, and an unbilled DeForrest Kelley as an army medic (who gets to say "He's dead, captain"!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A ruthless crime lord saves his sister from social embarrassment by working diligently to get the gangster who fathered her unborn baby off death row and out of prison so he can do the decent thing and marry the girl. The freed gangster is not thrilled with his new bride, but stays loyal until the woman miscarries. He then returns to crime and begins messing with other women, something that outrages his wife's nefarious brother and leads him to frame the cocky youth and get him sent back to prison and certain death. Just before he is to die, the youth tells his story to a sympathetic reporter, who decides to go after the real troublemaker. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Adapted by playwright John Patrick from a novel by famed globetrotter/filmmaker John H. Secondari, Three Coins in the Fountain offers the splendors of Rome in Technicolor, CinemaScope and Stereophonic Sounds. For all its lovely picture-postcard images, the film is at base a reworking of 20th Century-Fox' favorite plotline: three pretty girls on the prowl for husbands. The three lovelies, who toss their coins in the Trevi fountain and wish for romance, include Dorothy McGuire, Jean Peters and Maggie McNamara. Before the film is over, secretary McGuire has wooed her boss, Clifton Webb, Peters has won the heart of a co-worker Italian translator Rossano Brazzi (despite being fired, in the process, for having an office romance); and McNamara finds happiness with prince Louis Jourdan. Three Coins in the Fountain won two Academy Awards: "Best Color Cinematography" (Milton Krasner), and "Best Song" (written by Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen, and sung in the pre-credits sequence by an uncredited Frank Sinatra). The film was remade in 1965 as The Pleasure Seekers, and also served as the basis for a never-sold TV pilot starring Yvonne Craig, Cynthia Pepper and Joanna Moore. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Ricky (Desi Arnaz), Fred (William Frawley), and Ethel (Vivian Vance) bet Lucy (Lucille Ball) one hundred dollars that she can't tell the truth for 24 hours. Determined to win her bet, Lucy manages to offend all of her bridge-playing friends by refusing to coddle them with her usual little white lies. The acid test comes when Lucy is forced to reveal her true age -- and worse, her true weight. In typical I Love Lucy fashion, the situation is resolved in a burst of hilarious physical comedy, as Lucy is obliged to prove her self-proclaimed show-business talents by appearing at the wrong end of a knife-throwing act! ~ All Movie Guide

This tuneful biography of operatic soprano Grace Moore begins as she prepares to perform on opening night. While awaiting her entrance cue, she reflects upon her life and the sequence of events that led her from a humble childhood in Tennessee to becoming one of the brightest stars in the opera world. Songs include "The Kiss Waltz," "Remember," "I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate" and "La Boheme." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A rare foray into straight action-adventure by comedy director Edward Bernds, Hot News stars Stanley Clements as ex-pugilist Mark Miller. Now working as a sports columnist at the newspaper run by Al Bragg (James Flavin), Miller takes it upon himself to expose the fight-fixing racket masterminded by gambler Rizzo (Ted De Corsia). Naturally, this puts Miller at the top of Rizzo's hit list, but one feels that virtue will triumph when the film's 61 minutes have run their course. Myron Healey, usually cast as a villain, essays the relatively sympathetic role of a boxer victimized by the ruthless Rizzo. Stanley Clements' leading lady is Gloria Henry, six years removed from her TV stint as Dennis the Menace's mom. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The opening credits appearing over a turbulent ocean serve as a foreshadowing of things to come in this standard-issue love triangle that shifts into high drama thanks to taut direction by Fritz Lang and a sizzling performance by Barbara Stanwyck. Returning to live with her brother, Joe (Keith Andes), at her family's home in a small fishing village, Mae Doyle (Stanwyck) has reached rock bottom. Reeling from the pain of her previous romances, Mae slowly pieces things together and begins dating Jerry (Paul Douglas), a simple-minded fisherman. More along Mae's speed is Jerry's slick, boozy pal Earl Pfeiffer (Robert Ryan), a film projectionist who makes his feelings for her known right away despite the fact that he is married. Mae spurns his advances and decides to marry Jerry. Meanwhile, Joe has grown close to ditzy factory worker Peggy (Marilyn Monroe). Some time later, Mae and Jerry have had a baby, and things appear happy, but Mae is not in love with Jerry, and soon finds herself in Earl's arms. Jerry discovers the affair, and during a confrontation with the deceitful couple, Mae reveals that she is leaving to be with Earl. After some booze and a pep talk from his Uncle Vince (J. Carrol Naish), Jerry confronts Earl and proceeds to nearly strangle him until Mae arrives. Jerry storms off, but when Mae comes to their home to retrieve the baby, she discovers that Jerry has taken the child. Desperately upset, she explains the situation to Earl, but as they talk, she begins to arrive at a new realization about her life and what it takes to find happiness. ~ Patrick Legare, All Movie Guide

This above-average Louis Hayward swashbuckler was sumptuously produced by Columbia's resident western specialist Harry Joe Brown. Adapted from Rafael Sabatini's Captain Blood Returns, the film stars Hayward as physician-turned-buccaneer Peter Blood. Now respectably retired in the West Indies, Blood is shaken out of his complacency when he is accused of returning to piracy. Given a chance to clear his name, Blood reassembles his old crew to track down the villain who's pilfered his good name. The excellent cast includes John Sutton, George Givot, Ted de Corsia, and, in larger roles than usual, Charles Irwin and Rex Evans. And what would a Columbia pirate picture be without leading lady Patricia Medina? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

During the Vatican Holy Year of 1950, confidence trickster Joe Brewster (Paul Douglas) disguises himself as a priest and heads to the Holy City. It is Brewster's intention to use his faux clerical garb to evade arrest by the American authorities. But through the influence of American priest Father John (Van Johnson), Brewster experiences an epiphany and changes his ways. Reverent to a fault, When in Rome could have been insufferably saccharine, but the no-nonsense performances of Paul Douglas and Van Johnson carry the day. Enhancing the film is producer-director Clarence Brown's decision -- thankfully approved by the MGM front office -- to lens much of the story on location in Rome and Vatican City. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide