Harry Townes Movies
Wiry-featured American actor Harry Townes usually played informers, small-time crooks, wrong-headed military officers or duplicitous businessmen. His acting career began while he was attending the University of Alabama; chancing upon a Birmingham performance by a touring stage company of Richelieu starring Walter Hampden, Townes impulsively decided to become a performer himself. Within three years, Townes had worked in a New England stock company and was costarring in a travelling production of that old theatrical warhorse Tobacco Road. After two decades of stage performances, Townes came to Hollywood to appear on NBC television's Matinee Theatre, averaging some 18 TV performances per year thereafter. His personal favorite TV assignment was GE Theatre's Christmas offering The Other Wise Man, although Twilight Zone fans would argue in favor of Townes' role as a petty con artist endowed with the ability to change his facial features in the 1959 episode "The Four of Us are Dying." Harry Townes' film credits include The Mountain (1956), The Brothers Karamazov (1958), Sanctuary (1961) and The Warrior and the Sorceress (1974). His one recurring TV role was as Russell Winston on the 1986-87 season of Knots Landing. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1957
District attorney Martin Ross (Royal Dano) is running for governor. To help Martin's chances, his mentally disturbed brother Richard (Harry Townes) murders Martin's opponent. As tough as it is for Martin to cover up Richard's "indiscretion," it gets even tougher when another man (Robert Ellis) is arrested for the crime -- and Martin is obliged to force a confession from him! A young Inger Stevens figures into the proceedings as Martin's anguished wife Laura. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1956
One of Dodge's finest citizens is shot down in cold blood on Front Street. Marshal Matt Dillon (James Arness) soon discovers that he himself was the intended target, and that the killing was masterminded by an old enemy. But as the story unfolds, it turns out that there's a third man involved in the conspiracy. One of several episodes directed by frequent John Wayne collaborator Andrew McLaglen, "Spring Term" is based on the Gunsmoke radio broadcast of June 13, 1953. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1956
To fully enjoy the rugged outdoors adventure The Mountain, one must accept the notion that 55-year-old Spencer Tracy and 25-year-old Robert Wagner are brothers. Tracy plays veteran mountain guide Zachary Wheeler, who is coaxed out of retirement when a passenger plane crashes on high mountain. He decides it isn't worth risking his life to recover the bodies of the passengers, but hot-headed younger brother Chris (Robert Wagner), hoping to claim the victims' valuables, talks Zachary into accompanying him to the mountaintop. After their treacherous upward journey, the brothers discover that one of the passengers, a Hindu girl (Anna Kashfi), is still alive. Zachary wants to bring her back to safety, but the greedy Chris would rather abandon her and make off with the valuables. It is, inevitable, then, that not everyone involved is going to get off the mountain alive. A worthwhile character study enhanced by superb location photography, The Mountain is compromised by its overreliance on phony-looking studio "exteriors". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Spencer Tracy, Robert Wagner, (more)
- 1956
A stalwart of the radio anthology circuit, the classic suspense tale "The Creeper" is given its first TV treatment on this episode. The title character is a serial strangler who preys upon helpless women. Terrified at the prospect of being the next victim, Ellen Grant (Constance Ford) locks her apartment door and refuses to come out. Before long, however, salvation seems to be at hand, as a locksmith shows up to fix Ellen's door so that no one -- but no one -- will be able to break in. At least, that's what Ellen thinks until the very last, horrifying minute of this macabre little playlet. "The Creeper" was re-filmed for the 1985 revival of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, with Karen Allen as the protagonist. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Versatile character actor Harry Townes is afforded a rare top-billed assignment in Operation Manhunt. Townes is cast as the real-life Igor Gouzenko, who while working as a code clerk in the Soviet embassy in Ottawa was instrumental in smashing a Red spy ring operating in Canada. The film recounts Gouzenko's disillusionment with the Communist party line, his decision to cooperate with federal officials, and the efforts by the KGB to put him out of the way permanently. Operation Manhunt was produced by Matty Fox, the head of Motion Pictures for Television, and was originally intended for a simultaneous theatrical and TV release. The story of Igor Gouzenko was previously dramatized on a bigger-budgeted scale in 20th Century-Fox's The Iron Curtain. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harry Townes, Irja Jensen, (more)
