Olan Soule Movies

Leaning heavily on violence to ostensibly deliver a pacifist message, this standard drama by Philip Leacock looks at the problem of teen gangs from a slightly different angle -- these teens are all wealthy. Everything starts off when aerospace engineer Walt Sherill (Alan Ladd) is accosted and severely beaten by a group of young punks. The victimized man decides to hunt down the thugs on his own, at first just for curiosity and then increasingly for vengeance. His actions spark retaliatory measures, and before the credits roll, the body count is elevated by a few more victims in what amounts to nothing more than a blood feud. In the end, justice of the legal and politically correct sort makes a token appearance. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

This episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour was adapted by frequent Twilight Zone contributor Richard Matheson from his own novel. In his youth, Christopher Martin (Hugh O'Brian) drove the getaway car for a robbery committed by three of his friends. But Christopher panicked, driving off and leaving his pals to be arrested. Now happily married and holding down a responsible job, Christopher is terrified when one of his ex-pals calls him, telling him that he intends to spill the beans to Mrs. Martin (Gena Rowlands) before wreaking a terrible revenge. Will Christopher be able to fend off his former partner in crime without revealing his sordid past to his wife? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When Mayberry choir director John Masters (Olan Soule) announces that he needs a new first tenor, Barney volunteers for the job. Unfortunately, Barney's musical skills are on a par with his talents as deputy. When it becomes obvious that the other choir members haven't the heart to tell Barney that his singing stinks, Andy comes up with a face-saving strategy that could well have been borrowed from the climax of Singin' in the Rain. Originally shown on February 19, 1962, "Barney and the Choir" was written by Jack Elinson and Charles Stewart. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

For years, rancher Thad Taylor (Harry Carey Jr.) has lived in terror of his pretty bout domineering housekeeper Lydia (Kathie Browne). Now Lydia has demanded that That marry her immediately--or else. In desperation, Thad turns to Paladin (Richard Boone) to deal with the overbearing Lydia, thus setting the stage for a frontier variation on "The Taming of the Shrew." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Prior to carrying out the orders of her boss Morley Thielman (George Neise) by placing a briefcase containing $100,000 in a train station locker, Janice Wainwright (Elaine Devry) stops at the office of Perry Mason (Raymond Burr), informing the lawyer that she thinks Thielman is being blackmailed. Janice's last stop is in Las Vega to meet Thielman's ex-wife--but instead, she is arrested and charged with her boss' murder. In his efforts to defend Janice, Perry must discredit the testimony of witness Fred Carlyle (James Callahan), who insists that he saw Janice's distinctively shapely silhouette through the shades of Thielman's window just before the murder. This episode is based on a 1960 novel by Perry Mason creator Erle Stanley Gardner. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The town of Bad Dog, Oregon is populated by wealthy ranchers who refuse to pay their cattle taxes. Actually, it goes beyond a mere refusal: Three tax collectors have already been killed in their efforts to get the cattlemen to pay up. You guessed it: Paladin (Richard Boone) is hired as Collector Number Four--and he is not about to end up as just another statistic. The strong supporting cast includes such western-movie perennials as Roy Barcroft, Harry Carey Jr. and Raymond Hatton. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A pair of con artists named Warren (Karl Swenson) and Cruppen (Robert Cornwaithe) sells some worthless land to Beau Maverick (Roger Moore). This is particular painful for Beau inasmuch as he has lost the $4000 which had been entrusted to him by his friend Jerry O'Brien (Denver Pyle). Since the swindlers know how to "play" the law to their advantage, it appears as though Beau will never get his money back--until Warren's niece Rosanne (Anita Sands) reveals herself to be a "Maverick under the skin." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

John McIntire appears as radio commentator Loren Hall, a character rumored to be based on The Untouchables' rat-a-tat narrator Walter Winchell. Relying heavily on his gangland connections, Hall dispatches several tantalizing bulletins about a mob-connected drug operation which has been robbing pharamacies and hospitals in the Chicago area. Though Elliot Ness Robert Stack has little success persuading Hall to reveal the sources of his information, by episode's end the newsman is forced to realize on his own that no one can "sit on the fence" in the war against crime. All this intrigue is interwoven with the betrayal and murder of gang boss Dino Patrone (Frank Silvera, the kidnapping of Dino's sheltered daughter Carla (Arlene Sax), and a homicidal hoodlum (Joseph Anthony) who happens to be a diabetic. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Marianne Darelle (Norma Crane) wants to spend her vacation at the ocean resort of Woodmere, but for some curious reason the travel agent sells her a ticket to the town of Seaside instead. Even after Marianne exchanges the ticket, she ends up in Seaside all the same. Also in the same resort is a married couple, Mr. and Mrs. Bromley (Charles Aidman, Louise Lorimer), who have likewise been redirected to Seaside despite their desire to go to Woodmere. Just what exactly is going on here--and more specifically, what does fate have in store for Miss Darelle and Mr. Bromley? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This variation of the old "Aladdin and the Magic Lamp" yarn stars Luther Adler and Vivi Janiss as Arthur and Edna Castle, the debt-ridden owners of a failing pawnshop. The Castles' luck changes dramatically when, after purchasing an old bottle, they discover that the bottle contains a dapper and somewhat sinister genie (Joseph Ruskin). Granted the usual three wishes, Arthur and Edna soon learn that they were better off when they were worse off. Written by Rod Serling, "The Man in the Bottle" was originally telecast October 7, 1960. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

While having lunch at the Plaza Hotel in New York, advertising executive Roger O. Thornhill (Cary Grant) has the bad luck to call for a messenger just as a page goes out for a "George Kaplan." From that moment, Thornhill finds that he has stepped into a nightmare -- he is quietly abducted by a pair of armed men out of the hotel's famous Oak Room and transported to a Long Island estate; there, he is interrogated by a mysterious man (James Mason) who, believing that Roger is George Kaplan, demands to know what he knows about his business and how he has come to acquire this knowledge. Roger, who knows nothing about who any of these people are, can do nothing but deny that he is Kaplan or that he knows what they're talking about. Finally, his captors force a bottle of bourbon into Roger and put him behind the wheel of a car on a dangerous downhill stretch. Through sheer luck and the intervention of a police patrol car and its driver (John Beradino), Roger survives the ride and evades his captors, and is booked for drunk driving. He's unable to persuade the court, the county detectives, or even his own mother (Jesse Royce Landis) of the truth of his story, however -- Thornhill returns with them to the mansion where he was held, only to find any incriminating evidence cleaned up and to learn that the owner of the house is a diplomat, Lester Townsend (Philip Ober), assigned to the United Nations. He backtracks to the hotel to find the room of the real George Kaplan, only to discover that no one at the hotel has ever actually seen the man. With his kidnappers once again pursuing him, Thornhill decides to confront Townsend at the United Nations, only to discover that he knows nothing of the events on Long Island, or his house being occupied -- but before he can learn more, Townsend gets a knife in his back in full view of 50 witnesses who believe that Roger did it. Now on the run from a murder charge, complete with a photograph of him holding the weapon plastered on the front page of every newspaper in the country, Thornhill tries to escape via train -- there he meets the cooly beautiful Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint), who twice hides him from the police, once spontaneously and a second time in a more calculated rendezvous in her compartment that gets the two of them together romantically, at least for the night. By the next day, he's off following a clue to a remote rural highway, where he is attacked by an armed crop-dusting plane, one of the most famous scenes in Hitchcock's entire film output. Thornhill barely survives, but he does manage to learn that his mysterious tormentor/interrogator is named Phillip Vandamm, and that he goes under the cover of being an art dealer and importer/exporter, and that Eve is in bed with him in every sense of the phrase -- or is she? ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

The aristocratic Deverall family engages the services of Paladin (Richard Boone) to save the life of wealthy, arrogant young Pierre Deverall (Ed Nelson). Although he has been accused of murder and sentenced to hang, Deverall is smugly certain that his "good name" will prevent his execution. But Paladin doubts this, especially considering Deverall's very close association with a notorious outlaw (or group of outlaws) known as The Black Handkerchief. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this routine business-story-cum-romantic-comedy, James Garner is Cash McCall, a wheeling and dealing tycoon, and Natalie Wood is Lory Austen, the daughter of failing businessman Grant (Dean Jagger). McCall's expertise lies in acquiring businesses about to go belly up, attaching them to successful enterprises and then taking a large tax deduction on the resultant equation. Those deals are enhanced when the once-failing business is then sold at a profit. This is a savvy gambit for late '50s movie fare, but its proponent begins to have second thoughts when he comes up against the attractive Lory -- who is not afraid of baring all for a good cause. The well-known co-stars and others like Nina Foch and E.G. Marshall do their best with a limited script. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide