Nesdon Booth Movies
- 1963
When the producers of The Untouchables bowed to the pressure of the Italian-American Anti-Defamation league and began focusing on non-Italian villains, they decided to drop one of the series' most popular characters, gangster Frank "The Enforcer" Nitti (Bruce Gordon). But with the series' ratings in rapid decline, it was decided to bring Nitti back--and here he is, up to his old tricks. On this occasion, Nitti has formed a partnership with mob bookkeeper Leo Stazek (a definitely pre-Kojak Telly Savalas), who has come up with a brilliant plan to increase the profits of "The Enforcer"'s bootlegging racket. Stazek's scheme involves heavy speculation in the stock market, and for a while the grateful Nitti is rolling in dough. What Frank doesn't realize is that Stazek is planning to double-cross him and grab all the profits (and "The Enforcer"'s power) for himself. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1962
This routine, often disappointing, "B"-grade, low-budget western is directed by Edward L. Cahn and was the penultimate film of his career. (He died the year after Gun Street was released.) The story is mainly one long chase, as the Sheriff (Jame Brown) goes after an outlaw. One obstacle after another and one close call after another keep on cropping up as the Sheriff gets closer and closer to his prey. In the meantime, the usual stock characters show up -- the gambling casino madam (who has set her romantic sights on the Sheriff), and his self-effacing sidekick both have their moments. The finale, however, is not the expected last-ditch shoot-out. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Brown, Jean Willes, (more)
- 1962
Having suffering a crippling injury while on his honeymoon, Joe Drake (Paul Comi) is none too pleased when he is visited by Ralph Morrow (John Lupton), former boyfriend of Joe's wife, Madeline (Peggy Ann Garner). Convinced that Ralph has set his sights for Madeline again, Joe gets carried away by his paranoia and concludes that Ralph is also responsible for three recent murders in his neighborhood, in which all the victims were young women. Ultimately, however, both Joe and Ralph launch desperate searches for Madeline when she fails to come home on time -- and it is at this point that the murderer's true identity is revealed. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1962
Bart's cousin Jacqueline (Kathy Bennett) is conned out of the $10,000 she needs to square her family's debts by the inimitable Big Ed Murphy. It seems that Murphy claims he's invented a machine that can manufacture money--not counterfeit, but the genuine article. In order to get Jacqueline's cash back, Bart (Jack Kelly) must somehow beat Big Ed at his own crooked game. Originally played by John Dehner in the previous episode "Greenbacks, Unlimited", Bug Ed Murphy is herein portrayed by Andrew Duggan, who was then starring in another Warner Bros. TV series, Room for One More. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Western bandit Kid Rio (Marlon Brando) is betrayed by his partner, Dad Longworth (Karl Malden). Escaping from prison, Rio learns that Longworth has become a wealthy and influential lawman. Rio thirsts for revenge, but bides his time, waiting for the right moment to strike. In the meantime, Rio spitefully seduces Longworth's adopted daughter, Louisa (Pina Pellicer). After killing a man in self-defense, Rio is publicly whipped by the powerful Longworth. When Rio's old gang accidentally kills a child during another holdup, Longworth has the perfect excuse to eliminate the troublesome Rio once and for all by hanging him. But that's not what happens at all. Stripped to its fundamentals, One-Eyed Jacks is a workable Western, worthy of perhaps 90 minutes' running time. But when Marlon Brando succeeded Stanley Kubrick in the director's chair, he allowed the film's 60-day shooting schedule to stretch into six months, and delivered a finished product running in excess of four hours. The current 141-minute version of One-Eyed Jacks isn't as ponderous as some critics have claimed, but it's still too much of a good thing. While Brando the director isn't precisely in the Kubrick class, Brando the actor delivers one of his finest and most focused performances (though he is upstaged throughout by Karl Malden). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, (more)
- 1961
Upon discovering that his business partner Jimbo Cobb (Buddy Ebsen) possesses psychokinetic powers enabling him to move things with his brain power alone, café owner and compulsive gambler Ace Larsen (Dane Clark) hightails it to Las Vegas with Jimbo in tow. It is Ace's contention that Jimbo's unsual gift will enable him to "fix" dice games and roulette wheels without detection, and for a while this proves to be the case. But what Ace hasn't counted on is the fact that Jimbo has a conscience -- and that Jimbo is disgusted by Ace's cavalier treatment of his erstwhile girlfriend Kitty Cavanaugh (Christine White). Scripted by Charles Beaumont from a story by George Clayton Johnson, "The Prime Mover" made its Twilight Zone debut on March 24, 1961. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Buddy Ebsen, Dane Clark, (more)
- 1960
Good actors help raise the level of this downbeat drama of drugs and survival by Philip Leacock. The story is set in Chicago's notorious South side and is based on Willard Motley's novel of a mother struggling to raise her son "right" in spite of the odds against her. Nellie (Shelley Winters) herself is battling her dependency on drugs, battling poverty after her husband was executed for crimes he committed, and also fighting to keep her son Nick (James Darren) from following in his father's footsteps. Nick also wants to rise above his environment but even with the help of some friends, the boy and his mother are up against very tough odds. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Burl Ives, Shelley Winters, (more)
- 1960
In New Orleans during Mardi Gras, Bart (Jack Kelly) witnesses the murder (or more accurately, the execution) of a wine merchant named Agostino (Joe Garcio). But when he tries to report the crime, Bart is accused of being the murderer himself. It soon develops that the killing was ordered by the local branch of the sinister "Black Hand" (a 1960s TV code-word for the Mafia), whose minions are determined to shut Bart up permanently before he can persuade someone to believe in his innocence. This episode was cowritten by actor Leo Gordon, who'd appeared in previous Maverick installments in the recurring role of Big Mike McComb. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1960
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
- Starring:
- Ray Danton, Karen Steele, (more)
Set in Texas during the late 1860s, Rio Bravo is a story of men (and women) and a town under siege. Presidio County Sheriff John T. Chance (John Wayne) is holding Joe Burdette (Claude Akins), a worthless, drunken thug, for the murder of an unarmed man in a fight in a saloon -- the problem is that Joe is the brother of wealthy land baron Nathan Burdette (John Russell), who owns a big chunk of the county and can buy all the hired guns he doesn't already have working for him. Burdette's men cut the town off to prevent Chance from getting Joe into more secure surroundings, and then the hired guns come in, waiting around for their chance to break him out of jail. Chance has to wait for the United States marshal to show up, in six days, his only help from Stumpy (Walter Brennan), a toothless, cantankerous old deputy with a bad leg who guards the jail, and Dude (Dean Martin), his former deputy, who's spent the last two years stumbling around in a drunken stupor over a woman that left him. Chance's friend, trail boss Pat Wheeler (Ward Bond), arrives at the outset of the siege and tries to help, offering the services of himself and his drovers as deputies, which Chance turns down, saying they're not professionals and would be too worried about their families to be good at anything except being targets for Burdette's men; but Chance does try to enlist the services of Wheeler's newest employee, a callow-looking young gunman named Colorado Ryan (Ricky Nelson), who politely turns him down, saying he prefers to mind his own business. In the midst of all of this tension, Feathers (Angie Dickinson), a dance hall entertainer, arrives in town and nearly gets locked up by Chance for cheating at cards, until he finds out that he was wrong and that she's not guilty -- this starts a verbal duel between the two of them that grows more sexually intense as the movie progresses and she finds herself in the middle of Chance's fight. Wheeler is murdered by one of Burgette's hired guns who is, in turn, killed by Dude in an intense confrontation in a saloon. Colorado throws in with Chance after his boss is killed and picks up some of the slack left by Dude, who isn't quite over his need for a drink or the shakes that come with trying to stop. Chance and Burdette keep raising the ante on each other, Chance, Dude, and Colorado killing enough of the rancher's men that he's got to double what he's paying to make it worth the risk, and the undertaker (Joseph Shimada) gets plenty of business from Burdette before the two sides arrive at a stalemate -- Burdette is holding Dude and will release him in exchange for Joe. This leads to the final, bloody confrontation between Chance and Burdette, where the wagons brought to town by the murdered Wheeler play an unexpected and essential role in tipping the balance. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Wayne, Dean Martin, (more)
- 1959
Hypochondriac Walter Bedecker (David Wayne) would do anything to feel better -- including making a deal with the Devil. When His Satanic Majesty makes an appearance in the form of the jovial Mr. Cadwallader (Thomas Gomez), Walter enters into a contract whereby he will be given perfect health and immortality. Unfortunately, Walter soon discovers that eternal life isn't all it's cracked up to be, while his wife Ethel suffers spectacularly from Walter's efforts to "spice up" his existence. Several 1960s TV icons appear in supporting roles, including commercial "stars" Virginia Christine (aka Mrs. Olsen) and Dick Wilson) (Mr. Whipple), The Beverly Hillbillies' Raymond Bailey, and McHale's Navy's Joe Flynn. First telecast November 6, 1959, "Escape Clause" was written by Rod Serling. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Wayne, Thomas Gomez, (more)
- 1958
Bookkeeper Harold Goams (John McGiver) has come to the conclusion that he is no longer an individual, but merely a "statistic," one among millions of similar statistics. Hoping to escape his drab, insignificant life, Harold decides to do something shocking. And what could be more shocking than to dispose of his domineering sister, Margaret (Vivian Nathan) -- and then confess to the crime? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1958
Too Much, Too Soon was adapted from the warts-and-all autobiography of actress Diana Barrymore, the troubled daughter of "great profile" John Barrymore. As played by Dorothy Malone, Diana is a basically decent young lady who suffers mightily from lack of parental love. Her famous father, played with boozy bravado by Errol Flynn, is the soul of graciousness and affection when sober, but a human monster when drunk -- which is often. Her poetess mother, Michael Strange (Neva Patterson), is too preoccupied by her bitterness against Barrymore to pay much attention to Diana. Striking out on her own as an actress, Diana vainly seeks personal happiness with several husbands: actor Vincent Bryant (actually Bramwell Fletcher), played by Efrem Zimbalist Jr.; jealous, possessive tennis player John Howard (Ray Danton); and another actor, alcoholic Robert Wilcox (Ed Kemmer). Unable to find satisfaction in her work or her private life, Diana follows family "tradition" by turning to liquor; this leads to extended sanitarium stays and innumerable suicide attempts. It is suggested at the end of the film that she is on the road to recovery, thanks in part to her biographer Gerold Frank (Robert Ellenstein); the sad truth is that two years after the release of Too Much, Too Soon, Diana Barrymore killed herself at the age of 39. This filmed version of Diana's tragic life seldom rises above soap-opera level, save for Errol Flynn's knowing performance of his old friend and drinking companion John Barrymore. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dorothy Malone, Errol Flynn, (more)
- 1958
A brave cowboy/ex-con hits the dusty trail as the leader of a major cattle drive in this western. He is offered the job by the very townspeople his gang terrorized a few years before. They are also the same people who put him in the slammer, and even though he accepts the task, he secretly plots his revenge. He gets it by proving himself courageous and honest. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joel McCrea, Gloria Talbott, (more)
- 1958
In this Western, a rancher must perform a robbery lest the outlaw chief that holds his wounded brother hostage lets him die. The rancher does the job, then escapes to Mexico with his girl. En route, they marry. They soon find a cabin in the middle of Indian country. The Apaches had killed all the occupants, save for one baby. The couple begins raising the child. Soon the posse arrives to take the rancher back. He is charged with a murder that occurred during the heist. Later they realize that he is innocent and they protect him from another Apache attack. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brian Donlevy, Eilene Janssen, (more)
- 1958
Perry (Raymond Burr) receives a phone call from Arlene Dowling (Susan Morrow), who claims that she was robbed of all her belongings (including her clothes!) while sunbathing. Among the missing items is Arlene's trailer, in which was hidden a diary. Shortly thereafter, Perry finds himself defending Arlene on a charge of murdering George Ballard--and on a more disturbing note, he is nearly brought up on perjury charges by DA Burger (William Talman). This episode is based on a 1955 novel by Perry Mason creator Erle Stanley Gardner. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1958
This confusingly-titled science-fiction thriller is both an artifact of its time and a surprisingly forward-looking film, in terms of plot. On the one hand, its plot makes it a kind of 1950's B-movie antecedent to The Andromeda Strain -- on the other, it owes a lot to the popular police procedural films and television shows of the decade or so leading up to its production. The title refers to an advanced US satellite sent into orbit, in part to gather and return samples of material from space. The latter includes a microscopic organism believed to be the same existing on the planet Mars which, so one scientist, Dr. Charles Pommer (Paul Frees), believes, is responsible for that world's red coloration. Pommer, who is permitted to take the sample to his home laboratory, is brilliant and single-minded in his work; but his intellect and ambition, coupled with his unstable personality and chaotic personal life, leads to disaster. He discovers that the organism, which he christens "Blood Rust," can multiply incredibly fast in Earth's environment, and attach itself to (and ultimately consume any living host creature, including human beings. The alien organism proves his undoing, and he lives just long enough to warn project security chief John Hand (Bill Williams) of the danger -- but the warning comes too late to prevent Pommer's ex-wife (Lyn Thomas) from becoming an unwitting carrier of the organism. It's up to Hand and his assistant, Radigan (Robert Ellis), to find this woman -- whose identity they don't even know at first -- even as she tries (for purely personal reasons) to elude the authorities, not knowing of the danger she presents to herself and the world. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bill Williams, Lyn Thomas, (more)
- 1957
Musical comedy star Betty Garrett goes dramatic big-time in the hostage drama Shadow on the Window. Betty plays Linda Atlas, the mother of seven-year-old Petey Atlas (portrayed by Jerry "The Beaver" Mathers). When Petey witnesses a murder committed by a trio of juvenile delinquents, he wanders off in a state of shock. The three punks (John Barrymore Jr., Corey Allen and Gerald Sarricini) kidnap Linda, who's also witnessed their crime, holding her prisoner to keep the boy from talking -- if and when he recovers. Meanwhile, the authorities launch a frenzied manhunt in search of the catatonic boy, led by Petey's dad, police officer Tony Atlas (Phil Carey). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Philip Carey, Betty Garrett, (more)
- 1957
The inherent trashiness of Reform School Girl is redeemed by the sincere performance of Gloria Castillo and the matter-of-fact direction of Edward Bernds. Castillo plays mixed-up teenager Donna Price, who is shipped off to a girl's reformatory when she is involved in a fatal car crash. Actually, Donna is innocent, but she refuses to reveal who was driving. Only when the culprit (a pre-77 Sunset Strip Edward Byrnes) reveals himself to be a total piece of excrement is Donna able to extricate herself from her dilemma. The film served as the movie debut of Sally Kellerman, cast as a butchy inmate. Reform School Girl was remade for television in 1994 as part of Showtime cable's "Rebel Highway" series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gloria Castillo, Ross Ford, (more)
- 1957
The Rico brothers are mobsters in the employ of syndicate head Sid Kubick. Richard Conte plays the one Rico brother who has forsaken crime. But the other Ricos (James Darren and Paul Picerni) haven't yet seen the light, causing a deep rift in the brothers' family bonds. Conte gets word that his brothers have been marked for murder, and tries to warn them. What he doesn't know, at least until the last sweat-inducing moments of the film, is that the syndicate boss himself is the man who has ordered the Rico boys wiped out. The Brothers Rico, adapted from a novel by French detective-story specialist George Simenon, is an interesting thriller deeply rooted in the post-noir style of police thrillers like The Line-Up, with its overt emphasis on crude violence and a dull, almost flat visual style. The strong performance by Richard Conte, as a man out of step with the rest of society, is lost in this film which is in essence a simple thriller, lacking any real noir ambience. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Conte, Dianne Foster, (more)
This filmed version of the 1927 George Gershwin Broadway musical Funny Face utilizes the play's original star, Fred Astaire, and several of the original tunes, then goes merrily off on its own. Astaire is cast as as fashion photographer Dick Avery (a character based on Richard Avedon, the film's "visual consultant"), who is sent out by his female boss Maggie Prescott (Kay Thompson) to find a "new face". It doesn't take Dick long to discover Jo (Audrey Hepburn, who does her own singing), an owlish Greenwich Village bookstore clerk. Acting as Pygmalion to Jo's Galatea, Dick whisks the wide-eyed girl off to Paris and transforms her into the fashion world's hottest model. Along the way, he falls in love with Jo, and works overtime to wean her away from such phony-baloney intellectuals as Professor Emile Flostre (Michel Auclair). The Gershwin tunes include the title song, "S'wonderful", "How Long Has This Been Going On" and "He Loves and She Loves"; among the newer numbers is Kay Thompson's energetic opener "Think Pink". For years available only in washed-out, flat prints, Funny Face was eventually restored to its full Technicolor and VistaVision glory. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Audrey Hepburn, Fred Astaire, (more)
- 1957
Friday (Jack Webb) and Smith (Ben Alexander) are on the prowl for a man suspected of pulling a holdup. An anonymous tip leads the two detectives to the Full Moon, a cocktail bar which the suspect is known to frequent. But will the crook be scared off by the presence of The Law? Featured in one of his standard old-codger characterizations is William Fawcett, best remembered by baby boomers as grizzled ranch-hand Pete ("who cut his teeth on a branding iron") in the TV series Fury. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1956
The MGM melodrama These Wilder Years marked the first onscreen pairing of Hollywood stars James Cagney and Barbara Stanwyck. Lonely middle-aged businessman Steve Bradford (Cagney) returns to his old town in hopes of finding the son he fathered 20 years earlier. Choosing his career over marriage and family, he got a girl pregnant and she gave the baby up for adoption. He goes to an orphanage ran by Ann Dempster (Barbara Stanwyck) to find out information about his son. They are attracted to each other, but she refuses to release the confidential files that could help him. He hires a lawyer, James Rayburn (Walter Pigeon), and proceeds to sue the adoption agency. Though he loses the case in the climactic courtroom scene, Steve ends up finding his son on his own, but he decides it's too late to forge a relationship. Instead, Ann introduces him to pregnant teenager Suzie (Betty Lou Keim), who needs his help. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Cagney, Barbara Stanwyck, (more)
- 1955
Friday (Jack Webb) and Smith (Ben Alexander) really have their work cut out for them when bartender George Cabot (Nesdon Booth) reports that his wife Ethel was assaulted by an unknown perpetrator, who then threw hot tar on the unfortunate woman. It soon becomes obvious that Cabot himself injured his wife--but she refuses to file charges. The part of Mrs. Cabot is played by Georgia Ellis, better known as "Miss Kitty" on the radio version of Gunsmoke. This episode is based on the Dragnet radio broadcast of October 12, 1954. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1955
I Died a Thousand Times is a scene-by-scene remake of the 1941 crime-drama classic High Sierra. Jack Palance steps into the old Humphrey Bogart role as Roy "Mad Dog" Earle, the ageing bank robber who intends to pull off one last heist before retiring. Sprung from prison by likeable crime boss Big Mac (Lon Chaney Jr.), Earle is commissioned to mastermind the robbery of a resort hotel. His partners in crime include the hotheaded, immature Babe (Lee Marvin) and Red (Earl Holliman), as well as "inside man" Mendoza (Perry Lopez). Also along for the ride is Marie (Shelley Winters), a dance-hall girl whom Babe has picked up. Marie falls in love with Earle, but he has eyes only for Velma (Lori Nelson), the club-footed daughter of a farmer (Ralph Moody) whom Earle had earlier befriended. Intending to use his share of the loot to finance Velma's operation, Earle goes through with the robbery, only to be thwarted by the ineptitude of his partners, the treachery of the late Big Mac's successors, and, finally, the fickle Velma. With the faithful Marie by his side, Earle makes a desperate escape into the High Sierras, but fate is still against him. Essentially an itinerary of what has previously "clicked" in High Sierra, I Died a Thousand Times makes a few concessions to changing tastes and mores; the stereotype comedy-relief character played by black actor Willie Best in the original film, for example, has been replaced by the more "acceptable" (at least by 1950s terms) stereotyped Mexican played by Gonzales-Gonzales. While the 1955 film cannot match the excellence of its 1941 role model, I Died a Thousand Times works pretty well on its own terms. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Palance, Shelley Winters, (more)
