Karen Steele Movies

Damon Runyon's story "Little Miss Marker" gets a mid-'60s update in this comedy. Steve McCluskey (Tony Curtis) is the manager of a nightspot in Lake Tahoe owned by Bernie Friedman (Phil Silvers). Steve is the kind of guy who has heard every sob story in the book and is not easily impressed, but his hard heart begins to soften a bit when he meets Penny Piper (Claire Wilcox), a young orphan girl with no one to turn to and nowhere to go. Steve grudgingly takes her in and soon grows fond of the tyke. Penny thinks that Steve needs to get married and settle down, so she starts playing Cupid, trying to set him up with pretty Chris Lockwood (Suzanne Pleshette). However, Steve is still reeling from his failed first marriage and isn't so sure that another trip to the altar would be good for him. The film's finale sends Steve on a wild chase through Disneyland. Forty Pounds of Trouble marked the feature directorial debut of Norman Jewison, who would go on to make In the Heat of the Night, Fiddler on the Roof, and Jesus Christ Superstar. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Newly re-energized in the late 1950s, the venerable Pine-Thomas production company moved from Paramount to United Artists, there to make such actioners as Bailout at 43,000. John Payne stars as a courageous test pilot, who joins a team busily testing jet-bomber ejector seats. But before he can prove his worth to the team, Payne loses his nerve. Chances are he'll get it back in time to make the titular bailout at 43,000 feet, thereby redeeming himself in the eyes of his wife (Karen Steele) and son (Richard Eyer). The film truly comes to life during its aerial scenes, but crashes to earth during its treacly dramatic passages. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The unexpected arrival of notorious "coward" Jason McCord (Chuck Connors) in a small town proves to be both surprising and embarrassing for a young ne'er-do-well named Tuck Fraser (Larry Pennell). Thanks to a series of incredible circumstances, Tuck is being lauded by the local populace as the man who has finally killed the much-hated McCord. Now that Jason has turned up very much alive, Tuck is forced to desperate measures to retain his undeserved reputation. This is the first of several Branded episodes directed by Larry Peerce, whose later film credits include Goodbye, Columbus and Two-Minute Warning. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Decision at Sundown was one of several felicitous collaborations between star Randolph Scott and director Budd Boetticher. Scott plays a flint-eyed gunman who rides into a sleepy town to drive out local tough guy John Carroll by sundown. Scott is motivated not by justice but by revenge; years earlier, Carroll had stolen Scott's wife. The woman subsequently killed herself, and the fact that she had left Scott willingly is torturing both men, each of whom feels partially responsible for her death. As sundown approaches, the "angst" suffered by both hero and villain spreads to the rest of the townspeople, who do a lot of soul-searching while waiting for the final confrontation. Decision at Sundown truly lives up to the label "psychological western". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Beautiful British traitor Lady Valerie Stanford (Karen Steele) has designed an anti-aircraft weapon for the Nazis. Hogan is ordered to sabotage the weapon, and to do this he must trick Klink into revealing Lady Valerie's whereabouts. But is the lady really the turncoat that she seems to be? Also appearing are frequent Hogan's Heroes supporting players Paul Lambert (as General Riker) and Laurie Main (as Woodhouse). Written by Ben Gershman, "The Big Dish" made its first network appearance on March 8, 1969. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Paddy Chayefsky's Oscar-winning slice-of-life drama is a heartwarming story about Marty Pilletti (Ernest Borgnine), a lonely Bronx butcher. Marty is a burly but gentle man, easing into middle age without much hope for romance or a career. He lives at home with his mother (Esther Minciotti), a kind but life-smothering woman, and a small circle of dead-end friends. Marty has no self-confidence and feels he's dumpy and unattractive. While it takes some doing, Marty's mother finally convinces him to go to the Stardust Ballroom in Manhattan, where he meets a plain-looking schoolteacher named Clara (Betsy Blair), whose life appears to mirror his own. He asks Clara to dance and soon they are smitten with one another. But to Marty's surprise and frustration, his friends put her down and his mother is hostile to her. Swayed by his friends and his mother, he doesn't call Clara back. But sitting at the bar with his friends the next night, Marty decides he has had enough, and defying his enclosed little world, he rushes to a phone booth to call Clara. As Marty shouts to his friends, "You don't like her. My mother don't like her. She's a dog. And I'm a fat, ugly man. Well, all I know is I had a good time last night ... You don't like her? That's too bad!" ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

In the town of Arroyo, Bart (Jack Kelly) is hired to protect gambling-hall proprietor Dave Lindell (Gerald Mohr) from a vengeful cowpoke named Brazos (Ray Daley). But it is Brazos who ends up being killed, whereupon Bart chases after the killer--unaware that he is a pawn in a sinister scheme that will culminate in his own demise. This prime example of "western noir" was written and directed by 77 Sunset Strip stalwart George WaGGner, who invariably billed himself in this curious fashion. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When her purse is stolen, Claire Olger (Patricia Hardy) is forced to hitch a ride from Michael Greeley. Unfortunately, Greeley (John Hubbard) has been drinking--and when he plows his vehicle into a truck, killing the other driver, he runs away, leaving Claire to take the rap. In his efforts to save Claire from charges of manslaughter and grand theft auto, Perry (Raymond Burr) locates the elusive Granger--who happens to be stone cold dead. Now Perry must defend his client on a charge of first-degree murder! A second killing further complicates this episode, which is based on a 1941 novel by Perry Mason creator Erle Stanley Gardner. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Keith Larsen not only starred in Run to the High Country but also handled the production end. Top billing is afforded Larsen's son Erik, playing a boy with an ecological bent. In attempting to protect the local wildlife from hunters, Erik places his own life in jeopardy at every turn. The story is, at best, merely adequate: the main selling card of Run to the High Country is its gorgeous Utah location photography. Karen Steele and Alvin Keeswood also appear. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

An unofficial remake of The Champ, The Clown concerns Dodo Delwyn (Red Skelton), a down-and-out performer with abundant and obvious talent, but also a self-destructive tendency to overindulge his drinking and gambling habits. Once a Ziegfeld headliner, Dodo is now lucky to get jobs playing a clown at cheap amusement parks and even cheaper burlesque. Dodo's addictions cost him his marriage, but he somehow is able to maintain custody of his son Dink (Tim Considine), whose love for and faith in his father knows no bounds. Dink and Dodo's desperate need for each other is threatened when Dink's mother -- married again and capable of providing him with a better life -- reappears and explains that she wants to take care of the boy herself. Dink goes behind his father's back to locate his old agent, and begs him to help Dodo; but the agent cannot do anything. Dink goes away with his mother, but is miserable and runs back to his father. The agent, meanwhile, has managed to wrangle a TV show for Dodo -- and now that his son is back and needs him, Dodo resolves to find the courage to take up this offer and make a success of it. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide

This effective gangster film on the notorious New York mobster Jack "Legs" Diamond is interspersed with moments of comic relief and was released just a few months after The Purple Gang shot their way across the silver screens in the U.S. Ironically, that gang and Diamond met their ends in the same year, 1931, and their rise was largely due to Prohibition. "Legsie" (Ray Danton) gets his name because he was a dancer, but he gets his reputation because he double-crosses anyone. He is a psychopath who works his way up the body count to the top of his own network of rackets. Along the way he meets and marries his wife Alice Schiffer (Karen Steele) and survives three attempts on his life that send him to the hospital each time. His reputation for "invulnerability," the inability of the police to touch him, gangsters who kill each other off, the racketeering with union bosses, and the hijacking of liquor shipments are all elements found in this film and The Purple Gang as well. Watch for a young Dyan Cannon in a bit part as Dixie, back when her first name was spelled like everyone else spells Diane. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

This high-flying thriller utilizes exciting footage of the USAF Thunderbirds in action--an interesting and authentic look into the world of Air Force test pilots. Set at Edwards Air Force base in California, the story centers on a dishonored pilot who is no longer allowed to fly. It seems that as a Korean POW he was brutally tortured and brainwashed until he could bear no more and he eventually cracked. Though it has been many years, he wants to clear his name and fly again. Unfortunately a general fears the pilot could again lose it during the testing of a highly experimental plan. Fortunately, the general's secretary is the former girl friend of the pilot and she convinces the general that he is rock solid. The pilot then sets out to prove it for himself. James Garner made his big screen debut in this film. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A fast-paced western with a romantic twist, this was one of the last films pairing director Budd Boetticher and popular cowboy hero Randolph Scott before Scott's retirement. John Hayes (Scott) left the Civil War behind him when he took on the job of managing the Overland Stage Lines out of a small Colorado town. Clay Putnam has not forgotten that the Confederacy lost and he plans on robbing Hayes' Overland Stage of one of its gold shipments from California to the North. He wants the gold to stay in the South to revive the Confederate cause. Meanwhile, his wife Norma (Virginia Mayo) complicates matters since she was Hayes' old flame, and Putnam's cronies want the gold for themselves. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide