Marie Windsor Movies

Officer Jim Reed (Kent McCord) is intrigued and Officer Pete Malloy (Martin Milner) is irritated by the voice of the new police dispatcher. Though she comes across as sexy and alluring, the newcomer is also rather confusing: it seems that no one can understand what she's saying or where she's sending them. Tonight's case log marks the return of police informer TeeJay (Robert Donner), who leads the cops to arrest a gunman at a movie studio; and a radical terrorist seems to be building up quite an illegal arsenal. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Bruce Gordon, best known to 1960s TV fans as Frank Nitti on the original Untouchables series, is no less menacing in the role of modern-day bounty hunter Mike Dehner. Having come to Los Angeles in search of a bail jumper, Dehner makes no secret of his willingness to resort to violence to get his man--something that Officers Jim Reed (Kent McCord) and Pete Malloy (Martin Milner) are not about to let happen. Film noir stalwart Marie Windsor appears as a waitress who helps Jim and Pete stop Dehner dead in his tracks. And in a lighter moment, the two cops are confused when a woman demands that she be given a traffic ticket. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Virginia City is held in a grip of terror by the vicious family of condemned killer Harry Lassiter (Jack Chaplain. Cold-blooded matriarch Ma Lassiter (Marie Windsor) promises to kidnap one citizen per day until Harry is set free. Things get personal for the Cartwrights when Little Joe is among those abducted by Ma's murderous brood. In addition to guest-star Marie Windsor, another film noir stalwart, John Hoyt, is seen as Major Sutcliffe. First broadcast on December 5, 1965, "Five Sundowns to Sunup" was written by William L. Stuart. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Pop singer Tommy Sands guest stars as Richard Bain, a young West Point cadet. Facing expulsion for defending Jason McCord's behavior at the Battle of Bitter Creek, Bain is given 30 days to recant his words--or face a dishonor and disgrace comparable to that suffered by McCord (Chuck Connors). As the story progresses, McCord must weigh the option of salvaging his own reputation by ruining Bain's. Prominent in the supporting cast is celebrated "film noir" veteran Marie Windsor ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Cat Women of the Moon tells the tale of a group of American space travellers who confront a hostile tribe of females on the border between the light and dark side of the moon. The expedition is led by Laird Grainger (Sonny Tufts), whose polyglot crew--including co-pilot Kip Reissner (Victor Jory) and navigator Helen Salinger (Marie Windsor)--land on the lunar surface, where they soon discover that there's an atmosphere and water and everything. After a few minutes of wandering, the travellers come upon a huge modernistic city, populated by leotard-clad "cat women". The ruler, Alpha (Carol Brewster), reveals that she has telepathically brought the earthlings to her city, using Salinger as her unsuspecting go-between. The cat women perform a kinky dance to the tune of "Stranger in Paradise," while the shifty copilot Reissner tries to steal the city's cache of gold. Alpha enslaves the visitors via mind control, leaving only cat-woman Lambda (Susan Morrow), who has fallen in love with crewman Douglas Smith (Bill Phipps), to save the day. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Though it ain't Noel Coward, Chatterbox is the funniest of the two Judy Canova-Joe E. Brown vehicles for Republic. Brown is hilariously cast as Rex Vane, a pompous radio cowboy star who's never been any further west than his living room. When Rex is signed to appear in a film, it becomes painfully apparent that he can neither ride nor shoot. But rambunctious Judy Boggs (Judy Canova) can do both, and it is Judy who helps guide the vain Vane through his moviemaking experiences. Rex proves himself to be a genuine hero in a slapstick finale "borrowed" from Chaplin's The Gold Rush. Naturally, both Brown and Canova are given ample opportunity to sing, as are guest performers Spade Cooley and the Mills Brothers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Drug enforcement agent Cat (Kathy Shower) is sent to Mexico by her boss (Robert Quarry) when fellow agent and former boyfriend Clint (Brian Thompson) is held captive by cocaine-trafficking fiends. The head of the drug cartel turns out to be Morgan (William Smith), a former agent now on the wrong side of justice. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Although Marie Windsor plays the title role in Dakota Lil, she is shunted away to third billing, right after male leads George Montgomery and Rod Cameron. Montgomery is cast as a secret service agent Tom Horn, sent West to round up a gang of counterfeiters. He starts by gaining the confidence of dance-hall girl Lil (Windsor), one of the ringleaders. She, in turn, leads Horn to the brains of the operation, Harve Logan
(Cameron). When Lil finds out that Horn is a Fed, she's tempted to fill him full of holes; instead, having fallen in love with him, she tries to help him get the goods on Logan. Dakota Lil was based on a story by Frank Gruber, later one of the leading lights of the TV-western craze. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Petroleum engineer Buzz (Richard Denning) agrees to bring in a gusher for oil driller Reno (Carleton Young). When Reno is murdered, the oil well is inherited by Terry (Marie Windsor). Buzz decides to stick around when Reno's ruthless sister Lilli (Fay Baker) schemes to wrest the well away from Terry. He also hopes to find out the identity of Reno's murderer--and it's a real surprise, except maybe for dyed-in-the-wool "B" picture buffs. Produced independently by Bel-Air Productions, Double Deal was purchased outright by RKO Radio, which then handled distribution. The film was directed by Abby Berlin, on loan from Columbia Pictures. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

John Garfield, in the best performance of his career, portrays Joe Morse, an ambitious attorney who has long since abandoned his scruples in favor of monetary reward. Morse now represents the interests of crime boss Ben Tucker (Roy Roberts), who plans to take over the numbers racket in New York. Morse has devised a way of doing this legally and above-board, with no violence: Tucker's people will bring about the collapse of the illegal numbers racket in the city, using a race track-betting scam that will bankrupt the small-time underworld numbers banks; an investigation will ensue, along with a call for a legal numbers operation in the form of a lottery, which Tucker will control through Morse's machinations. The whole plan hinges on Morse's estranged brother, Leo (Thomas Gomez), a small-time numbers banker who is to be shielded from the collapse, and who will serve as the "legitimate" front for Tucker. Leo is the flaw in the plan, however, because not only can't he stand the sight of Joe, but he is also too honest to participate in the plan -- he doesn't want his employees, all decent people just looking to earn a living, forced into the employ of real gangsters. Joe orchestrates a series of police raids that force Leo into his corner, and Joe's plan seems to be working out, but then the whole enterprise is threatened when a rival mob, run by Tucker's former Prohibition-era partner, Fico (Paul Fix), starts pressuring Leo, trying to get to Joe and Tucker. Fico and his men aren't any different from Tucker's mob, except that they're prepared to start shooting sooner to get what they want. Tucker decides to hang tough and expects everyone, including Leo, to do the same, even when Fico starts sending thugs around to frighten everyone. Soon Joe is beset by problems on three fronts -- he wants his brother out of Tucker's combination and safe; he is trying to romance Leo's bookkeeper (Beatrice Pearson), who is too nice a girl for who he is; and his own well-being is threatened by both Fico and Tucker, and a state investigator who has already tapped the phone of Joe's otherwise respectable partner. All of these threads are pulled together in the final section of the film, which is as violent and disturbing, yet poetic and graceful a resolution as any crime film of the 1940s ever delivered. Force of Evil was star-crossed almost from the start, as many of the people involved, including star John Garfield and director Abraham Polonsky (a writer making his debut behind the camera, with help from assistant director Don Weis in doing the camera set-ups and blocking), were suspect at the time for their leftist political views. Indeed, the company that made Force of Evil, Enterprise Productions, was also in trouble for the leftist leanings of its films in the midst of the Red Scare, and went out of business just as the movie was finished -- dropped by United Artists and picked up by MGM, of all studios, Force of Evil made it into theaters during Christmas week of 1948, not the ideal schedule for something as grim (albeit great) as this film was. As it turned out, it was Polonsky's last chance to direct for more than 20 years, and Garfield's last completely successful film. And a movie that should have been a triumph for all concerned ended up a cult favorite. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Though the title role of Frenchie goes to Shelley Winters, top billing in this period actioner is bestowed upon Joel McCrea as sheriff Tom Banning. Hoping to find her father's murderers, New Orleans gambling-house proprietress Frenchie Fontaine (Shelley Winters) sets up shop in the Wild West. With the help of sheriff Banning, Frenchie is able to locate one of the two killers. But after tracking down the second culprit, Banning finds himself facing a murder charge. Though it isn't readily obvious, Frenchie is actually a reworking of 1939's Destry Rides Again, with Joel McCrea and Shelley Winters playing variations of the characters originally essayed by James Stewart and Marlene Dietrich. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Hell's Half Acre was written directly for the screen by Steve Fisher, whose I Wake Up Screaming remains one of the definitive "film noirs". The scene is a rundown section of Honolulu, where there dwells a group of wannabes, hasbeens and never-weres. While trying to go straight in this environment, ex-racketeer Chet Chester (Wendell Corey) is shaken down by his former criminal cohorts. Chester's girl friend Rose (Nancy Gates) kills one of his tormentors, whereupon Chester takes the blame, assuming that he's still got enough pull to get off with a light sentence. Meanwhile, Dona Williams (Evelyn Keyes) arrives on the scene, certain that Chester is her long-lost husband. When Rose is murdered, Chester escapes from jail, intending to prove Dona's innocence--and to square accounts with the 10-year-old son he never knew he had. Elsa Lanchester provides much-needed laughs as a dotty cabdriver. Dismissed upon its first release, Hell's Half Acre is now considered one of the most durable of Republic's mid-1950s features. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide