Willis B. Bouchey Movies

Written by Harvey Bullock, "Back to Nature" starts off calmly enough when Andy takes Opie and several other youngsters on an overnight camping trip. Along for the ride are Barney and Gomer, who in trying to prove themselves to be expert outdoorsmen promptly get lost in the woods. Not wishing to embarrass Barney, Andy helps his two pals get back to civilization without them ever suspecting that they're being helped. Originally telecast May 11, 1964, "Back to Nature" was the final episode of The Andy Griffith Show'sfourth season, though not the last one to be shown. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This is the first of four consecutive episodes in which Perry Mason appears only briefly, while a "guest" lawyer handles the case at hand (Raymond Burr was at the time recovering from minor surgery). No less than Bette Davis is cast as female attorney Constant Doyle, the widow of famed defense attorney Joe Doyle. Taking her late husband's place, Constant agrees to defend young Cal Leonard, who is accused of burglarizing the offices of Otis Industries and beating up a night watchman. Actually, Constant doesn't like Cal very much and was thinking of dropping the case until her curiosity was aroused by the fact that Lawrence Otis was all too willing to drop the charges against the boy. As it turns out, Cal is lucky to have Constant on his side when he charged with the murder of his cousin Steven (Jerry Oddo). Removed from the original Perry Mason syndicated rerun package in 1966, this episode remained unseen until it was telecast on cable TV in the mid-1990s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Wally's Filling Station has been plagued by a series of robberies, and the prime suspect is young Jimmy Morgan (Pat Colby), who has been in and out of trouble all his life. Convinced of Jimmy's innocence, Andy tries to clear the boy-while gung-ho Barney attempts to use the latest electronic technology to solve the case. Also in the cast is Johnny Silver, the diminutive character actor who created the role of Benny Southstreet in Guys and Dolls, as Prothro Hansen. Written by Harvey Bullock, "The Great Filling Station Robbery" was originally broadcast on February 25, 1963. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Middle-aged sculptor John Kenyon (John Larkin) falls hopelessly in love with his young model Theba (Marianna Hill), demonstrating his ardor by making a "goddess" statue of her. Unfortunately, Theba's Medusa-like mother Cleo (Faith Domergue) would rather than she marry someone her own age--and more specifically, someone with more money. Inevitably, Cleo is murdered, and Kenyon is spotted apparently disposing of the body. Among those scrutinized by Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) in his efforts to save Kenyon from the gas chamber is one George Spangler, played by future Oscar winner George Kennedy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Philanthropist Carleton Gage (Everett Glass) hires Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) to alter his will so that the orphanage he supports will remain open. Unfortunately, Gage lapses into a coma just before the will can be finalized. As Gage's life ebbs away, two of his beneficiaries, his cousin George (Jacques Aubuchon) and his employee Ernest Demming (John Morley) demand that the orphanage be shut down--while Gage's sister-in-law Joane Proctor (Jan Shepard) just as insists that the place will stay in business. By and by, Demming is murdered, and Joane is charged with the crime--meaning that Perry will have to redirect his energies to save Joane from being convicted. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Ray Milland both starred in and directed the morose, minimalist sci-fier Panic in the Year Zero! (original title: Panic in Year Zero!). En route from Los Angeles to a vacation in the mountains, Harry Baldwin (Milland), his wife, Ann (Jean Hagen), and his teen-aged children, Rick (Frankie Avalon) and Karen (Mary Mitchell), are appalled to see a mushroom cloud forming over the L.A. skyline. With the highways clogged by panicking motorists, Milland and his family decide to head to the shelter of their fishing spot, there to wait until more news about the nuclear disaster is available. Everywhere they drive, however, the family is confronted by rampaging looters, heavily armed survivalists, and doped-up motorcycle punks. Attempting to remain calm and collected in the face of Armageddon, Milland ends up as violent and animalistic as everyone else. Though it avoids proselytizing for the most part, Panic in the Year Zero! does fall back on the old reliable "The Beginning" fadeout title. The most powerful aspect of the film is the "normalcy" of Milland's family: we are made to feel throughout that what happens to them could very well happen to us, and how then would we react? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Like Pontius Pilate, director John Ford asks "What is truth?" in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance--but unlike Pilate, Ford waits for an answer. The film opens in 1910, with distinguished and influential U.S. senator Ransom Stoddard (James Stewart) and his wife Hallie (Vera Miles) returning to the dusty little frontier town where they met and married twenty-five years earlier. They have come back to attend the funeral of impoverished "nobody" Tom Doniphon (John Wayne). When a reporter asks why, Stoddard relates a film-long flashback. He recalls how, as a greenhorn lawyer, he had run afoul of notorious gunman Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin), who worked for a powerful cartel which had the territory in its clutches. Time and again, "pilgrim" Stoddard had his hide saved by the much-feared but essentially decent Doniphon. It wasn't that Doniphon was particularly fond of Stoddard; it was simply that Hallie was in love with Stoddard, and Doniphon was in love with Hallie and would do anything to assure her happiness, even if it meant giving her up to a greenhorn. When Liberty Valance challenged Stoddard to a showdown, everyone in town was certain that the greenhorn didn't stand a chance. Still, when the smoke cleared, Stoddard was still standing, and Liberty Valance lay dead. On the strength of his reputation as the man who shot Valance, Stoddard was railroaded into a political career, in the hope that he'd rid the territory of corruption. Stoddard balked at the notion of winning an election simply because he killed a man-until Doniphon, in strictest confidence, told Stoddard the truth: It was Doniphon, not Stoddard, who shot down Valance. Stoddard was about to reveal this to the world, but Doniphon told him not to. It was far more important in Doniphon's eyes that a decent, honest man like Stoddard become a major political figure; Stoddard represented the "new" civilized west, while Doniphon knew that he and the West he represented were already anachronisms. Thus Stoddard went on to a spectacular political career, bringing extensive reforms to the state, while Doniphon faded into the woodwork. His story finished, the aged Stoddard asks the reporter if he plans to print the truth. The reporter responds by tearing up his notes. "This is the West, sir, " the reporter explains quietly. "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend." Dismissed as just another cowboy opus at the time of its release, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance has since taken its proper place as one of the great Western classics. It questions the role of myth in forging the legends of the West, while setting this theme in the elegiac atmosphere of the West itself, set off by the aging Stewart and Wayne. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Rod Serling penned the story on which this crime melodrama was based. The trouble begins when as a policeman rushes toward the scene of a robbery. En route he hears a woman scream in a dark alley and gets there just in time to see someone tearing away. The cop calls out, but the runner does not stop. The cop opens fire and fatally shoots a young teenage boy. Apparently the youth had only accidentally bumped the lady and knocked her down. Though the cop is eventually acquitted, his reputation amongst his peers is destroyed. This leads the disgraced officer to launch his own investigation in hopes of clearing his sullied name. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

While on a fishing excursion, Barney and Floyd are held captive by three escaped female convicts: Big Maude Tyler (Reta Shaw), Naomi Connors (Jean Carson) and Sally Stringer (Jane Dulo). Back in Mayberry, Andy organizes a posse to round up the women, unaware of Barney and Floyd's plight. When he does find out that the boys are prisoners, Andy concocts a clever subterfuge to save the day. Written by Jim Fritzell and Everett Greenbaum, this episode affords series fans the opportunity to see actress Jean Carson in a role other than "fun girl" Daphne. "Convicts-at-Large" first aired December 10, 1962. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Bill Williams, real-life husband of Perry Mason costar Barbara Hale (Della Street), appears as Mike Preston, an embittered oilman determined to get even with the man who crippled him and stole $100,000. When Harlow Phipps (Noah Keen) is murdered, Preston is framed for the crime by his elusive enemy, whereupon Preston's lovelorn housekeeper Lydia hires Perry to defend her boss in court. The solution to the case is tied in with an earlier incident wherein Preston angrily confronted a pair of hunters who shot and wounded a cougar near his property. (Ironically, this episode originally aired the same week that TV Guide featured a cover story about Barbara Hale). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Worried about an impending visit from the state prison inspector, deputy Barney grouses over the fact that the Mayberry jail looks more like a luxury hotel room than an institution of incarceration. Andy pooh-poohs Barney's trepidations, explaining that the inspector is an old friend of his. Alas, a new inspector has been hired-and true to Barney's dire predictions, he lowers the boom on Andy, threatening to remove the sheriff from office. Written by Jack Elinson and Charles Stewart, "The Inspector" first aired on April 10, 1961. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One of director John Ford's least characteristic films, it derives from the latter part of his career, when the director's belief in the myth of the West had faded, and he was beset by failing health and personal problems. In the cynicism of its humor, the director seems be to taking a page from the work of his friend Howard Hawks. James Stewart stars as Guthrie McCabe, the marshal of a Texas town who spends most of his time in front of the local saloon, where he gets 10 percent of the action, in addition to favors from its owner, Belle Aragon Anelle Hayes. Based on his knowledge of the Commanche tribe, his friend, cavalry officer Jim Gary (Richard Widmark), asks him to help the army to recover long-missing white captives. Despite his initial reluctance, the ability of the opportunistic McCabe to neogotiate a lucrative per capita deal for his recovery of the captives, in addition to his desire to evade the marital intentions of Belle, seal the deal. Even after interviewing the captives' desperate relatives, the hardened McCabe is unmoved, although he believes their chance of ever seeing their relatives again as they once knew them is remote. However, as events unfold, the all-knowing marshal find he has a few things to learn. ~ Michael Costello, All Movie Guide

Director Frank Capra's last feature film, Pocketful of Miracles is a Technicolor remake of his 1933 film Lady for a Day. A barely recognizable Bette Davis plays Apple Annie, the besotted, unkempt, rag-clad street vendor who controls the activities of all the beggars on Broadway. Apple Annie is the pet of Dave the Dude (Glenn Ford), a tough but basically kind-hearted gangster who believes that Annie's apples bring him luck. One morning, Annie fails to show up at her usual corner. That's because she is sitting disconsolate in her squalid shack, contemplating suicide. The reason: Annie has received a letter from her daughter Louise (Ann-Margret, in her screen debut). Annie has been supporting Louise's high-priced European education, leading the girl to believe that she, Annie, is a high-society dowager. Now Louise is returning home with her wealthy fiance Carlos Romero (Peter Mann) in tow, and it looks as though Annie's cover will be blown to bits. Partly out of sympathy, but mostly because of his superstitious belief in the power of Annie's apples, Dave the Dude arranges with his Broadway cohorts to "doll up" Annie so that she can pass as a woman of means, then stage-manages a huge, expensive reception for Louise and her beau. The complications that ensued in the original 1933 version of Lady for a Day exercise their prerogative once more, with a few added plot twists to pad out Glenn Ford's screen time. Cutting through the sentimental goo like a machete is Peter Falk, who is hilarious as Dave the Dude's sarcastic bodyguard. Evidently, Falk was one of the few actors on the set of Pocketful of Miracles with which Capra remained sympatico throughout shooting. In his autobiography (a not altogether reliable tome), Capra insisted that Pocketful of Miracles was ruined by Glenn Ford's autocratic and self-serving on-set behavior, and by Ford's demand that his current lady friend Hope Lange be (mis)cast as brash nightclub chirp Queenie Martin. As usual, Capra was not telling the whole story: at 63, he was beginning to lose his grip on his movie-making skills, allowing every scene to run well past its value and concentrating on cute isolated "bits" rather than the story at hand. Way too long at 136 minutes (Lady for a Day ran but 90), Pocketful of Miracles still has a lot going for it, especially the glowing performance of Bette Davis and the basic, foolproof Damon Runyon story on which it is based. While it disappointed at the box office, Miracles has since its release become a Christmastime TV perennial, seldom failing to draw big ratings numbers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide