Patrick Waltz Movies
Actor Patrick Waltz -- who entered movies professionally as Philip Shawn -- was a leading man and supporting player who was busy in television and occasional feature films for just over 20 years. Born in Akron, OH, in 1924, where he grew up as Jack Waltz, he landed a starring role his first time out in motion pictures in the low-budget but critically successful drama The Sun Sets At Dawn (1950), as a condemned man facing execution. Alas, despite some good notices, he soon discovered that work -- even as the star -- in a low-budget production of a Poverty Row studio wasn't the career boost that it might otherwise have been. Most of the work he got over the year that followed as Philip Shawn was in television. He also had what were mostly uncredited appearances as Patrick Waltz (or Pat Waltz) in a handful of television and low-budget movie dramas over the next few years, on series such as The Adventures of Dr. Fu Manchu, Circus Boy. Sugarfoot and The Gale Storm Show. In 1958, he played what was probably his best known -- and certainly his most important -- movie role, as Lt. Larry Turner, the navigator and self-styled Lothario of the space crew in the delightfully campy science fiction/adventure Queen Of Outer Space. As a real "operator" with the ladies who finds himself part of a crew stranded on Venus -- depicted as a planet populated entirely by beautiful women -- he had some of the best lines in the movie. Waltz revealed an ability as a charming scene stealer. He was also, apparently, at least as charming off camera as well, as he ended up romancing his on-screen paramour Lisa Davis from the movie -- the two were married in the summer of 1958, less than six months after shooting the picture, and they had three children before their divorce in 1971. Alas, Waltz never got another movie role that good again, and his television work was confined to supporting parts, and often very small ones, for the rest of his career. He died of a heart attack in Los Angeles in 1972, at age 47. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide- 1971
Five Desperate Women debuted as an ABC Movie of the Week on September 28, 1971. Anjanette Comer, Joan Hackett, Denise Nicholas and Stefanie Powers are four of five graduates of an exclusive girl's college, meeting together for a reunion on a remote island. The fifth girl (whose name we'll withhold for suspense purposes) is the one that's murdered first. It appears that an unknown assailant plans to pick off the girls one by one. The survivors must figure out who's doing them in and why before fade-out time. Aaron Spelling was the producer of this middling clichefest. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Columbia Pictures tried to create a tongue-in-cheek American James Bond with this, the first of five motion pictures based on the character of Matt Helm, a spy created in a series of novels by Donald Hamilton. Dean Martin stars as Helm, a boozing, womanizing cad of a spy coaxed out of retirement by ex-girlfriend Tina Batori (Daliah Lavi). His mission: stop the evil Big O organization, whose leader, Tung-Tze (Victor Buono), schemes to sabotage an atomic missile and thus spark World War III. Producer Irving Allen had once been partners with Albert R. Broccoli in the British film production company Warwick Films, their alliance ironically disintegrating over the merits of creating a Bond series. When Broccoli's instincts proved correct, Allen attempted to create his own spy franchise with the Helm character. The sequels to The Silencers (1966) were Murderers' Row (1966), The Ambushers (1967), and The Wrecking Crew (1968). Allen unsuccessfully tried to resurrect the character as a TV movie, Matt Helm (1975). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dean Martin, Stella Stevens, (more)
- 1964
Disgusted by the smarminess of his 1963 vehicle Under the Yum Yum Tree, Jack Lemmon vowed that his next effort would be a wholesome family picture. Good Neighbor Sam is suitable for all ages, to be sure, but that doesn't stop producer-writer-director David Swift from injecting plenty of double-entendre dialogue and harmlessly risque situations. Lemmon plays ad executive Sam Bissell, happily married to all-American blonde Minerva (Dorothy Provine). Anxious to land the Nurdlinger's milk account, Sam is carefully scrutinized by the prudish Simon Nurdlinger (Edward G. Robinson), a staunch advocate of old-fashioned family values.
Meanwhile, Minerva welcomes her old school friend, sexy Janet Langerlof (Romy Schneider) into her home. Janet is in line to inherit a fortune, but only if she's married. Unfortunately, Janet is currently separated from her insanely jealous spouse Howard Ebbets (Michael Connors), so big-hearted Minerva volunteers Sam to pose as Janet's husband. The ensuing comic complications come to a head when Nurdlinger elects Sam and Janet as the nation's ideal "married" couple, and posts their pictures on billboards all over town! Some of the smaller pleasures in this film are provided by Louis Nye as a high-tech private eye, Barbara Nichols as a squeaky-voiced call girl, Robert Q. Lewis as Sam's lascivious neighbor, and an uncredited Gil Lamb as a genial wino. An amusing running gag involved the Hertz "man in the driver's seat" commercials of the 1960s has sometimes been cut from TV prints of Good Neighbor Sam. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Meanwhile, Minerva welcomes her old school friend, sexy Janet Langerlof (Romy Schneider) into her home. Janet is in line to inherit a fortune, but only if she's married. Unfortunately, Janet is currently separated from her insanely jealous spouse Howard Ebbets (Michael Connors), so big-hearted Minerva volunteers Sam to pose as Janet's husband. The ensuing comic complications come to a head when Nurdlinger elects Sam and Janet as the nation's ideal "married" couple, and posts their pictures on billboards all over town! Some of the smaller pleasures in this film are provided by Louis Nye as a high-tech private eye, Barbara Nichols as a squeaky-voiced call girl, Robert Q. Lewis as Sam's lascivious neighbor, and an uncredited Gil Lamb as a genial wino. An amusing running gag involved the Hertz "man in the driver's seat" commercials of the 1960s has sometimes been cut from TV prints of Good Neighbor Sam. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Lemmon, Romy Schneider, (more)
- 1964
Lazy Uncle Joe (Edgar Buchanan) is faced with two problems: How to bring customers to the Shady Rest, and how to dig a drainage ditch at the lowest possible cost. Joe ends up tackling both problems by speading the rumor that there's been a valuable silver strike on the Shady Rest property. Glenn Strange, whose other roles include the Frankenstein monster and Gunsmoke's Sam the Bartender, is seen as would-be prospector Hawley. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1962
Lassie's Great Adventure is the feature-film version of a three-episode cliffhanger, originally presented on the Lassie television series. It all begins when the faithful collie accompanies his master Timmy (Jon Provost) to the market. While nosing around the vegetables, Lassie wanders into a van, which is promptly locked up. By the time she makes her escape, Lassie is hundreds of miles from home. Meanwhile, Timmy never gives up hope that his beloved Lassie will eventually return. Written by Sumner Long, Lassie's Great Adventure (original title: Lassie's Odyssey) was first telecast February 18, 24, and March 4, 1962. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1962
Pete Manders (Wynn Pearce), chief assistant to cartoonist Gabe Philips (Mark Roberts), cannot believe his good fortune when Philips sells him the rights to his popular comic strip "Zingy" at a bargain rate. Philips claims that he wants to retire from the daily grind and set up residence in the tiny artists' colony of Port Harmon, where he intends to become a serious painter under the name of Otto Gervaert. But that's only part of the story: Philips also wants to claim Manders' girlfriend Lesley Lawrence (Pamela Curran) for himself. When Philips--or Gervaert--is murdered, Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) must seek out clues amongst the denizens of Port Harmon in order to keep Manders out of the Death House. The supporting cast offers a wide and varied range of acting styles, from the fluttery mannerisms of veteran comedienne ZaSu Pitts to the pompous pontifications of perennial "heavy" Victor Buono. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1961
Long before he costarred in Bewitched, Dick York was forced to contend with unwelcome magical powers in this Twilight Zone episode. York is cast as bank clerk Hector Poole, who suddenly finds himself gifted with the power to read other people's minds. Hoping to use this power to his advantage, Hector ends up with a heap o' trouble instead. This being a comic episode, however, there's a happy (or at least satisfying ending). Watch for Hayden Rorke, Dr. Bellows from I Dream of Jeannie, in a key supporting role. The first Twilight Zone script written by George Clayton Johnson, "A Penny for Your Thoughts" originally aired February 3, 1961. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dick York, June Dayton, (more)
- 1960
A valuable Matisse is stolen from an art museum and replaced by a forgery. Museum curator June Sinclair (Mala Powers) and her boyfriend David Lambert (Joe Maross) are suspected of the crime--and then charged with the murder of the actual thief, David's wife Lisa (Carmen Philips). Thus it is that Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) has two clients to save from the gas chamber. The huge supporting cast includes veteran radio actresses Isabel Randolph and Elvia Allman, and former B-western hero Jack Perrin. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
This legendarily campy sci-fi epic (shot in color and CinemaScope, and rather lavish for a sci-fi film of this period) concerns a team of astronauts (all men -- this was 1958, you know) who are drawn off course and land on the planet Venus, only to discover it's populated entirely by beautiful women! The space travelers spend a lot of time drooling over their new hosts, dressed in highly practical mini-skirts, but the Venusian queen (Laurie Mitchell) does not much care for her visitors and wants to see them executed. However, not everyone on the planet takes such a hard line against the male gender. One of the Venusians is played by Zsa Zsa Gabor in what is probably the highlight of her film career; the original story was written by Ben Hecht. The producers helped stretch their budget by borrowing costumes and props from a number of other films, including spacesuits from Forbidden Planet, a spaceship from Flight To Mars and sets from World Without End (which was set on Mars, not Venus, though the differences must have escaped the film's scientific advisors). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Zsa Zsa Gabor, Eric Fleming, (more)
- 1957
- NR
Adapted by Robert Anderson from a story by James A. Michener, the Robert Wise-directed soaper Until They Sail is set in World-War-II New Zealand. Paul Newman plays been-there-done-that U.S. marine captain Jack Harding, assigned to investigate servicemen's requests to marry local girls. An unemotional cipher, Harding begins to warm up when he meets war widow Barbara Leslie Forbes (Jean Simmons), a woman with three sisters (played by Joan Fontaine, Piper Laurie, and Sandra Dee -- what a gene pool!). The Newman-Simmons relationship is played against the romance between uptight spinster Anne Leslie (Fontaine) and good-natured officer Richard Bates (Charles Drake), and the dysfunctional marriage between the emotionally desperate (and nymphomaniacal) Delia Leslie (Laurie) and slimy Shiner Friskett (Wally Cassell), who is off in battle. The fourth sister, Evelyn (Dee), watches her sisters' amorous pursuits longingly, her mind occupied by her own true love, who is off to war. Until They Sail was a copacetic reunion between star Newman and director Robert Wise, who'd previously collaborated in Somebody Up There Likes Me. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Simmons, Joan Fontaine, (more)
- 1954
In the tradition of Dragnet and The Lineup, this is devoted to a typically busy day at a police precinct station house. Despite the presence of such recognizable actors as Gary Merrill and Regis Toomey, the film successfully adopts a documentary approach. The plot concerns a new police chief (Gary Merrill) who is determined to clean up a crime-ridden slum district. The ads for The Human Jungle offered teasing full-body shots of costar Jan Sterling in a skimpy negligee; hopefully the fans lured in by this come-on weren't disappointed once they found how little they actually saw of Ms. Sterling (figuratively and literally) in the film itself. The Human Jungle was an "in between" production for Allied Artists, which in 1954 was trying to divest itself of the "poverty row" onus placed upon its predecessor, Monogram Pictures. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gary Merrill, Jan Sterling, (more)
