Douglas Spencer Movies

First telecast March 3, 1961, this is a deft reworking of the first-season Twilight Zone episode "Mr. Bevis." Making his second appearance on the series, Burgess Meredith stars as Luther Dingle, a mild-mannered salesman whom a pair of Martians select for a most unusual experiment. The aliens endow Dingle with the strength of 300 men, a gift which he eventually abuses and loses. The ending of this one is a beaut. Don Rickles costars as an obnoxious horse player, displaying the same comic invective with which he infested his nightlclub act. Written by Rod Serling, "Mr. Dingle, the Strong" would be remade, after a fashion, as the third-season Twilight Zone entry "Cavender Is Coming." ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Rachel Cade (Angie Dickinson), a dedicated American nurse working in the Belgian Congo, meets administrator Henri Derode (Peter Finch) during a native fertility dance. Guess what he tries to do? He doesn't, though, because Rachel falls in love with handsome downed RAF pilot Paul Wilton (Roger Moore). As Paul's wounds heal in the jungle hospital, he and Rachel manage to find quality time together. After he leaves, a pregnant Rachel turns to the previously rejected Henri for aid and comfort. After an hour or so of further melodramatic complications (including a native uprising), Rachel realizes that it was Henri she loved all along. A standard-issue soap opera from the Warner Bros. factory, The Sins of Rachel Cade was unobtrusively directed by the ubiquitous Gordon M. Douglas. Edward Anhalt adapted the screenplay from a novel by Charles E. Mercer. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Rod Serling's first original screenplay for the Big Screen was the psychological western Saddle the Wind. In one of his best performances, Robert Taylor plays Steve Sinclair, a world-weary gunslinger. Hoping to become a rancher, Sinclair is given a plot of land by patriarchal Dr. Deneen (Donald Crisp), on the proviso that Steve tries to curb the violent tendencies of his younger brother Tony (John Cassavetes). Unfortunately, Tony is not so easily controlled; he not only seethes with sibling rivalry, but also takes near-orgasmic delight in his gunslinging skills. Determined to prove to Steve and to his saloon-girl paramour Joan Blake (Julie London) that his shooting prowess somehow makes him a superior being, Tony brings tragedy to all concerned. Elmer Bernstein's overemphatic musical score is ideally suited to the larger-than-life histrionics of Saddle the Wind. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

As a favor to an old friend, producer Alex Gordon, James Cagney turned director for the first and only time in his career with Short Cut to Hell. The film is a remake of the 1942 Veronica Lake-Alan Ladd starrer This Gun For Hire. Robert Ivers plays Kyle, a hired killer who is double-crossed by his employer Bahrwell (Jacques Aubuchon). Seeking revenge, Kyle is reluctantly teamed with Glory Hamilton (Georgann Johnson), who has been targeted for elimination by Bahrwell and his henchman Nichols (Murvyn Vye). Unfortunately, Glory is the girlfriend of detective Stan (William Bishop), forcing Kyle to go on the lam before he can settle accounts with the film's principal villain. Kyle is finally able to get even with Bahrwell, and in the process reveals his long-dormant "good" side. Though the film itself is nothing special, Cagney's direction is sharp and efficient; it's too bad that Short Cut to Hell was his only effort behind the cameras. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This Dean Martin-Jerry Lewis romp is liberally based on the 1936 Bing Crosby film Rhythm on the Range. Set around 1910, the film stars Lewis as the pampered son of female tycoon Agnes Moorehead. Yearning to return to the Wild West where his father was a famed peacekeeper, Lewis purchases a prize bull, destined for the ranch inherited by rodeo star Dean Martin. It so happens that Martin and Lewis' late fathers were "pardners", so Martin takes it upon himself to protect Lewis from the various and sundry tough hombres in the region. Through a series of bizarre plot convolutions, Lewis gains a reputation as a rootin' tootin' gunslinger, and in his hubris he decides to round up a gang of outlaws headed by Jeff Morrow. As a result, he nearly gets himself blown to smitherines, but Martin shows up in the nick of time to rescue Lewis and help him capture the bad guys. Lori Nelson and Jackie Loughery supply the film's peripheral romantic angle. Pardners ends with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis turning to the camera and promising that they'll keep on making pictures for their faithful fans; ironically, the team was breaking up even while the cameras were turning. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Produced and directed by star Burt Lancaster, The Kentuckian is a leisurely western occasionally punctuated by spurts of startling brutality. The recently widowed Lancaster heads towards Texas with his son Donald McDonald. Most of the folks he meets, notably winsome schoolmarm Diana Lynn, bondslave Dianne Foster, and Lancaster's down-to-earth brother John McIntyre and sister-in-law Una Merkel, are pretty good souls, despite the raging family feud that motivates the plotline. The same cannot be said of whip-wielding saloonkeeper Walter Matthau (in his film debut), who goads Lancaster into a bloody fight. Matthau wins this round, but he gets his just deserts before the final fadeout. Based on a novel by Felix Holt, The Kentuckian makes excellent use of Technicolor and Cinemascope, as well as the musical expertise of composer Bernard Herrmann. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Ray Milland made his directorial debut with the Republic western A Man Alone. Milland also starred in the film, playing fugitive gunslinger Wes Steele. While escaping a lynch mob, Steele stumbles onto an Arizona ranch that has been quarantined due to Yellow Fever. During his enforced stay, he falls in love with sheriff's daughter Nadine Corrigan (Mary Murphy), who is as much a "lost soul" as Steele. The only hope the lovers have for a happy future is Steele's exoneration, but this won't happen so long as crooked town banker Stanley (Raymond Burr) holds all the cards. A Man Alone did well enough to encourage future directorial efforts by Ray Milland, which included the well-paced espionager Lisbon and the above average sci-fi exercise Panic in the Year Zero! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Based on a true story from the Civil War, this drama follows a band of Confederate POWS who escape from a New England prison head for Canada and begin planning to distract Union forces by looting and pillaging a Vermont town. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

A little girl is found wandering in the desert, in a state of complete shock. When she finally revives, she can scream out only one word: "Them!" Any aficionado of 1950s horror films can readily tell you that "Them" are giant ants, a byproduct of the radiation attending the atomic bomb tests of the era. Extremely well organized, these deadly eight-to-twenty-foot mutations converge on the storm drains of Los Angeles in the finale. Forming a united front against the oncoming ant battalions are New Mexico police sergeant James Whitmore, FBI representative James Arness, and father-and-daughter entomologists Edmund Gwenn and Joan Weldon. Since the details of Them are fairly common knowledge today, the mystery-thriller structure of the film's first half tends to drag a bit. Things liven up considerably during the search-and-destroy final reels, as the audience is barraged with convincing special effects and miniature work-not to mention that eerie ant-induced sound effect, so often imitated by subsequent lesser films. Fess Parker appears in a starmaking cameo as a pilot driven to the booby hatch after witnessing the ants in action, while an uncredited Leonard Nimoy is seen pulling info out of IBM machine. Definitely the high point in the careers of director Gordon Douglas and scenarists Ted Sherdeman and George Worthing Yates, Them is also one of the handful of vintage science-fiction thrillers that holds up as well today as it did when first released. (Sidebar: Though filmed in black-and-white, Them is alleged to have been released with a Technicolor opening title, the word THEM! hurtling towards the audience in a vibrant red). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The simple story of a Wyoming range war is elevated to near-mythical status in producer/director George Stevens' Western classic Shane. Alan Ladd plays the title character, a mysterious drifter who rides into a tiny homesteading community and accepts the hospitality of a farming family. Patriarch Joe Starrett (Van Heflin) is impressed by the way Shane handles himself when facing down the hostile minions of land baron Emile Meyer, though he has trouble placing his complete trust in the stranger, as his Marion (Jean Arthur) is attracted to Shane in spite of herself, and his son Joey (Brandon De Wilde) flat-out idolizes Shane. When Meyer is unable to drive off the homesteaders by sheer brute strength, he engages the services of black-clad, wholly evil hired gun Jack Wilson (Jack Palance). The moment that Wilson shows he means business by shooting down hotheaded farmer Frank Torrey (Elisha Cook Jr.) is the film's most memorable scene: after years of becoming accustomed to carefully choreographed movie death scenes, the suddenness with which Torrey's life is snuffed out -- and the force with which he falls to the ground -- are startling. Shane knows that a showdown with Wilson is inevitable; he also knows that, unintentionally, he has become a disruptive element in the Starrett family. The manner in which he handles both these problems segues into the now-legendary "Come back, Shane" finale. Cinematographer Loyal Griggs imbues this no-frills tale with the outer trappings of an epic, forever framing the action in relation to the unspoiled land surrounding it. A.B. Guthrie Jr.'s screenplay, adapted from the Jack Schaefer novel, avoids the standard good guy/bad guy clichés: both homesteaders and cattlemen are shown as three-dimensional human beings, flaws and all, and even ostensible villain Emile Meyer comes off reasonable and logical when elucidating his dislike of the "newcomers" who threaten to divest him of his wide open spaces. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This highly fanciful but immensely entertaining biopic stars Tony Curtis as legendary magician/escape-artist Harry Houdini. Janet Leigh, Mrs. Tony Curtis at the time, co-stars as Houdini's wife Bess, while Angela Clarke is seen as Houdini's mother. The film follows Houdini's progress from sideshow entertainer to high-priced prestidigitator, and also touches upon his fascination with the occult--and his efforts to expose phony mediums. Philip Yordan's script (based on a book by Harold Kellock) suggests that virtually every portentous occasion in Houdini's life occurred on Halloween day, including his death from peritonitis in 1926. The facts of Houdini's life seldom get in the way of Yordan's story; while general audiences won't spot too many discrepancies, professional magicians tend to howl with laughter at some of the film's intentional boners. Example: In real life, Houdini's appendix was fatally ruptured by a punch to the stomach; in the film, he injures himself by accidentally bumping into one of his props, the sword-studded "Temple of Benares" trick--which hadn't yet been invented in 1926! Still, it's fun to watch Tony Curtis wriggle his way out of some of Houdini's most baffling escape routines (both Curtis and Janet Leigh were carefully instructed on the set by professional magicians, who swore the stars to secrecy concerning the tricks of the trade). For a more accurate slant on Houdini's life, see the 1976 TV movie The Great Houdinis, starring Paul Michael Glaser and Sally Struthers. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Howard Hawks hoped to capture the screwball comic fervor of his 1938 film Bringing Up Baby with his 1952 comedy Monkey Business. As in the earlier film, Cary Grant stars as an absent-minded professor involved in a research project. This time he's a chemist seeking a "fountain of youth" formula that will revitalize middle-agers both mentally and physically. Though Grant's own laboratory experiments yield little fruit, a lab monkey, let loose from its cage, mixes a few random chemicals and comes up with just the formula Grant is looking for. This mixture is inadvertently dumped in the lab's water supply; the fun begins when staid, uptight Grant drinks some of the "bitter" water, then begins cutting up like a teenager. A harmless afternoon on the town with luscious secretary Marilyn Monroe rouses the ire of Grant's wife Ginger Rogers, but her behavior is even more infantile when she falls under the spell of the youth formula. Everyone remembers the best line in Monkey Business: foxy-grandpa research supervisor Charles Coburn hands the curvacious Monroe a letter and says "Get someone to type this". Even better is his next line: after Monroe sashays out of the room, Coburn turns to Grant and, with eyes atwinkle, murmurs "Anyone can type." Likewise amusing is Monkey Business's pre-credits gag, wherein Cary Grant opens a door and is about to step forward when director Hawks, off-camera, admonishes "Not yet, Cary." Among the co-conspirators on Monkey Business's carefree script are Ben Hecht, Charles Lederer and I.A.L. Diamond, with an original story by Harry Segall (Here Comes Mr. Jordan) as their source. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Reportedly, there was no love lost between the three stars of Untamed Frontier, and perhaps it was this tension that added so much depth to this otherwise formula-bound western. Joseph Cotten plays Kirk Denbow, the straight-laced son of ruthless cattle-baron Matt Denbow (Minor Watson), while Scott Brady co-stars as Glen Denbow, Kirk's firebrand brother (shades of Duel in the Sun, which also starred Cotten). Waitress Jane Stevens (Shelley Winters) witnesses a murder committed by Glen, then is railroaded into marrying him to prevent her from testifying in court. Inevitably, Jane falls in love with Kirk, the first of several fateful steps which lead to the film's bloody denouement. The late Suzan Ball, whose screen career was so tragically brief, makes her movie debut in Untamed Frontier. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi