John Wengraf Movies

Based on the novel by Irving Wallace, The Prize takes place in Stockholm, where several laureates gather to accept their Nobel Prizes. At first, the film concentrates on iconoclastic novelist Paul Newman, but he is temporarily shunted to the background when physics expert Edward G. Robinson is kidnaped and replaced by his wicked twin brother. The real Robinson is to be spirited behind the Iron Curtain, while the "fake" Robinson is to disrupt the awards ceremony with an anti-American tirade. Newman gets wind of the plot, and with the help of Swedish foreign office functionary Elke Sommer, he endeavors to rescue the real Robinson and expose the phony-who has yet another trick up his sleeve before the film is over. We'll go along with the fantastic plot convolutions of The Prize, provided we don't have to swallow the premise of another man's voice emanating from that familiar Eddie Robinson mug. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

After the end of World War II, the world gradually became aware of the full extent of the war crimes perpetrated by the Third Reich. In 1948, a series of trials were held in Nuremberg, Germany, by an international tribunal, headed by American legal and military officials, with the intent of bringing to justice those guilty of crimes against humanity. However, by that time most of the major figures of the Nazi regime were either dead or long missing, and in the resulting legal proceedings American judges often found themselves confronting the question of how much responsibility someone held who had "just followed orders." Judgment at Nuremberg is a dramatized version of the proceedings at one of these trials, in which Judge Dan Haywood (Spencer Tracy) is overseeing the trials of four German judges -- most notably Dr. Ernst Janning (Burt Lancaster) and Emil Hahn (Werner Klemperer) -- accused of knowingly sentencing innocent men to death in collusion with the Nazis. Representing the defense is attorney Hans Rolfe (Maximilian Schell), while prosecuting the accused is U.S. Col. Tad Lawson (Richard Widmark). As the trial goes on, both the visiting Americans and their reluctant German hosts often find themselves facing the legacy of the war, and how both of their nations have been irrevocably changed by it. Judgment at Nuremberg also features notable supporting performances by Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland, and Montgomery Clift. Originally written and produced as a play for television, the screen version of Judgment at Nuremberg was nominated for 11 Academy Awards, with Maximilian Schell and Abby Mann taking home Oscars for (respectively) Best Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Beating the U.S. Army to the punch by nearly six years, Elliot Ness (Robert Stack) goes after a criminal gang with links to the Nazi party. Otto Frick (Jack Warden), a racketeer in charge of several travelling carnivals which are distributing narcotics throughout the country, enters into an unholy partnership with the Hitler government. The Nazis agree to supply narcotics for free--on the condition that Frick drum up membership for the German-American Bund, in anticipation of a huge pro-Hitler rally at Madison Square Garden. Meanwhile, Frick's cohort Hans Eberhardt (Richard Jaeckel) is seduced into double-crossing his partner by Hedda Messlinger (Erika Peters), the sexy "niece" of a suave Nazi contact man (Francis Lederer). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Young Billy Walker (Wesley Lau) is accused of murdering the wife of Marshal Dowd (Claude Akins). Walker's employers, the Cartwrights, hope that Billy will get a fair trial, but it soon becomes obvious that Dowd intends to kill the boy before the case can be heard. Thus it is that Adam and Hoss appoint themselves escorts when Dowd transports Walker to Los Angeles for trial. Others in the cast included Fintan Meyler as Andrea, Ron Hayes as Hurd Cutler, John Wengraf as Dr. Strasser, Bud Osborne as Charlie, and Will Wright as Bailey. Written by Donald S. Sanford, "Desert Justice" was first aired on February 20, 1960. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Three explorers are hopelessly lost in the desert, their water supply all but depleted. Suddenly, a young man calling himself Eric Borgner (Jeremy Slates) appears out of nowhere, offering to guide the explorers to safety. Sadly, though the three men survive their ordeal, Eric does not. Years later, one of the explorers pays a visit to Eric's parents, to offer condolences and thank them for their son's help. But Mr. and Mrs. Borgner have quite a surprise for the nonplussed survivor. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Originally released as The Return of Dracula (and also known by the irrelevant title The Fantastic Disappearing Man), this interesting vampire variant on Shadow of a Doubt finds the infamous Count (Francis Lederer) leaving his castle digs in Transylvania and departing for the United States after killing an artist and assuming his identity. Passing himself off as a distant relative, he settles in with the Mayberry family in California, where he begins seeking fresh victims. The suspicions of young Rachel Mayberry (Norma Eberhardt) regarding her pale visitor's eerie nocturnal habits prove well-founded after the mysterious death of her best friend, and she soon discovers her own ghastly role in the Count's master plan; her only hope lies with an expatriate police inspector, who may be familiar with the ways of the undead. Played refreshingly straight, this modest Universal production benefits from Lederer's compelling performance as the seductive Count and several unique plot twists (including a blind girl who becomes sighted on turning into a vampire). ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi

Anita Ekberg amply fills the title role in the offbeat western Valerie. Clearly inspired by Rashomon, the film offers contradictory flashbacks during a lengthy trial. The defendant, Civil War hero John Garth, Sterling Hayden, is accused of seriously wounding his wife Valerie and murdering her parents. At first, the jury's sympathy is with Garth, who claims that his faithless wife was running off with preacher Blake (played by Ekberg's then-husband Anthony Steel) and that the death of his in-laws was accidental. But as testimony proceeds, it is revealed that the highly respectable, much-beloved Garth is a beast in human form. The complicated outcome of the trial has so many twists and turns that it would be criminal to reveal any one of them. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Edward Chodorov's stage farce Oh, Men! Oh, Women! is somewhat unnecessarily overburdened by star names in this 1957 film version. Dan Dailey plays psychiatrist Arthur Turner, who is somewhat put out when he discovers that one of his patients is the ex-boyfriend of his supposedly "normal" fiancée, Myra Hagerman (Barbara Rush). Having always prided himself on keeping his professional and personal life separated, Dr. Turner finds that he's just as mixed up as any of his patients in matters of the heart. Nominally, David Niven and Barbara Rush are the stars, but top billing is bestowed upon Dan Dailey and Ginger Rogers as bickering married couple Arthur and Mildred Turner, two secondary characters in the original play. Director Nunnally Johnson's screenplay also fleshes out the roles played by Dailey and Rogers with a lengthy, amusing "fantasy" sequence wherein Ginger offers a highly fanciful version of her marital life. In his motion picture debut, Tony Randall is hilarious as Cobbler, Myra Hagerman's neurosis-ridden former beau. Watch for Franklin Pangborn and Roy Glenn Sr. in unbilled cameo roles. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The CinemaScope process gets a rugged workout in Henry Hathaway's The Racers. Kirk Douglas stars as an Italian bus driver who dreams of entering the Grand Prix as a world-famous race car driver. Being Kirk Douglas, he achieves his goal, racing in all the major events around the globe. Dedicated to the philosophy of "winning is the only thing", Douglas alienates his fellow racers and everyone else with whom he comes in contact. Only when he is on the verge of losing his sweetheart Bella Darvi does our hero put his priorities in order. Adapted from a novel by Hans Ruesch, The Racers was remade in a 60-minute version as Men Against Speed, an entry in the weekly TV anthology The 20th Century-Fox Hour. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Like so many other films that were once considered "lewd" and "scandalous", The French Line seems as harmless as Pollyanna when seen today. Essentially a remake of The Richest Girl in the World, the film stars Jane Russell as Mary Carson, an incredibly wealthy Texas oil heiress. Lucky in investments but unlucky in love, poor Mary can never keep a fiance: either they're fortune-hunters or they don't want to marry anyone so rich and powerful. Thus, while on an ocean voyage to France, Mary poses as the model of dress designer Annie Farrell (Mary McCarthy), hoping to attract a man who is interested in her for herself, and not her millions. That man turns out to be dashing stage star Pierre (Gilbert Roland), but there's many comic complications and misunderstandings before the happy ending. What shocked the censors in 1954 was Jane Russell's sizzling musical number "Lookin' for Trouble", in which she performed an uninhibited bump-and-grind while wearing nothing more than a seven-ounce glorified bikini. While Ms. Russell herself was offended by her skimpy costume, she saw nothing wrong with the dance itself, pointing out that she intended it as a parody of a "burleycue" number. The professional blue-noses disagreed, however: the film was condemned by the Catholic Legion of Decency and denied a Production Code Seal. Eventually, producer Howard Hughes got the Seal--along with a million dollars' worth of free publicity, which is what he intended all along. Filmed in 3D, The French Line is the film that was ballyhooed with the classically tasteless ad campaign "J.R. in 3D--It'll knock both your eyes out!" ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Paris Playboys was lensed on the same sets used for the Bowery Boys' previous opus Loose in London, indicating that Allied Artists was nothing if not cosmopolitan. This time, Sach (Huntz Hall) turns out to be the exact double of brilliant French scientist Le Beau (also Huntz Hall). The mistaken-identity gimmick results in Sach, his fellow Bowery Boys Slip (Leo Gorcey), Chuck (David Condon) and Butch (Bennie Bartlett), and sweet-shop owner Louie (Bernard Gorcey) being whisked off to Paris, where Sach is expected to duplicate Le Beau's revolutionary new rocket fuel. It must needs be that the real Le Beau emerges from hiding to thoroughly confuse Slip et. al. Adding to the merriment are a bunch of foreign spies, headed by the always disreputable Steven Geray. Though out of favor with most Bowery Boys aficionados, Paris Playboys comes through with the usual quota of bellylaughs. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Friday (Jack Webb) and Smith (Ben Alexander) investigates the murder of shopkeeper John Wilford, whose bound-and-beaten body is found on the floor of his own haberdashery. At first it looks like robbery was the motive, but the victim's widow sends the detectives off on another trail when she reveals that Wilford was a serial philanderer--and that his latest girlfriend was a young, blonde chorus girl (played by none other than Carolyn Jones) with several other middle-aged admirers. This episode is based on the Dragnet radio broadcast of September 13, 1951. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi