Ben Wright Movies

My Blood Runs Cold was a typically lurid horror chiller produced and directed by William Conrad during his 1960s tenure on the Warner Bros. staff. Heiress Joey Heatherton falls prey to the charms of a handsome young man (Troy Donahue) who claims to be the reincarnation of a legendary lothario. Troy further insists that Joey had been his lover in a previous life. Pretty soon Joey nearly has the opportunity to check out the veracity of Troy's story in the Hereafter, for Mr. Donahue is actually a psychopath who hopes to claim Ms. Heatherton's fortune and then bump her off. My Blood Runs Cold is silly enough to have been dreamt up by Bill Conrad while he was narrating Rocky and His Friends. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When a wealthy man is found shot to death on a luxury liner, the ship's captain places Roger York (Skip Young), the victim's millionaire stepson, under arrest. But despite his suspicious behavior, is York the guilty party--and indeed, has a murder actually been committed? Investigating the case, FBI agent Rhodes (Stephen Brooks) must also confront a few of his own personal demons. Douglas Henderson appears in this episode as Special Agent Bryan Durant, a role later taken over on a recurring basis by Dean Harens. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One of the most popular movie musicals of all time, The Sound of Music is based on the true story of the Trapp Family Singers. Julie Andrews stars as Maria, a young nun in an Austrian convent who regularly misses her morning prayers because she enjoys going to the hills to sing the title song. Deciding that Maria needs to learn something about the real world before she can take her vows, the Mother Superior (Peggy Wood) sends her off to be governess for the children of the widowed Captain Von Trapp (Christopher Plummer). Arriving at the Trapp home, Maria discovers that her new boss is cold and aloof, and his seven children virtual automatons-at least, whenever the Captain is around. Otherwise, the kids are holy terrors, as evidenced by the fact that Maria is the latest in a long line of governesses. But Maria soon ingratiates herself with the children, especially oldest daughter Liesl (Charmian Carr), who is in love with teenaged messenger boy Rolf. As Maria herself begins to fall in love with the Captain, she rushes back to the Abbey so as not to complicate his impending marriage to a glamorous baroness (Eleanor Parker). But the children insist that Maria return, the Baroness steps out of the picture, and Maria and the Captain confirm their love in the song "Something Good." Unhappily, they return home from their honeymoon shortly after the Nazis march into Austria. Already, swastikas have been hung on the Von Trapp ancestral home, and Liesl's boyfriend Rolf has been indoctrinated in the "glories" of the Third Reich. The biggest blow occurs when Von Trapp is called back to active duty in the service of the Fuhrer. The Captain wants nothing to do with Nazism, and he begins making plans to take himself and his family out of Austria. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

At one time the longest-running Broadway musical, My Fair Lady was adapted by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe from the George Bernard Shaw comedy Pygmalion. Outside Covent Garden on a rainy evening in 1912, dishevelled cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle (Audrey Hepburn) meets linguistic expert Henry Higgins (Rex Harrison). After delivering a musical tirade against "verbal class distinction," Higgins tells his companion Colonel Pickering (Wilfred Hyde-White) that, within six months, he could transform Eliza into a proper lady, simply by teaching her proper English. The next morning, face and hands freshly scrubbed, Eliza presents herself on Higgins' doorstep, offering to pay him to teach her to be a lady. "It's almost irresistable," clucks Higgins. "She's so deliciously low. So horribly dirty." He turns his mission into a sporting proposition, making a bet with Pickering that he can accomplish his six-month miracle to turn Eliza into a lady. This is one of the all-time great movie musicals, featuring classic songs and the legendary performances of Harrison, repeating his stage role after Cary Grant wisely turned down the movie job, and Stanley Holloway as Eliza's dustman father. Julie Andrews originated the role of Eliza on Broadway but producer Jack Warner felt that Andrews, at the time unknown beyond Broadway, wasn't bankable; Hepburn's singing was dubbed by Marni Nixon, who also dubbed Natalie Wood in West Side Story (1961). Andrews instead made Mary Poppins, for which she was given the Best Actress Oscar, beating out Hepburn. The movie, however, won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor for Harrison, and five other Oscars, and it remains one of the all-time best movie musicals. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In Volume 22 of a collection culled from the 1963-1965 science fiction anthology television series, the crew of a spacecraft bound for Earth must kill a lethal plant attached to the ship before they reach their destination. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

The ninth season of Alfred Hitchcock's popular TV suspense anthology opens with a chilling little character study by Robert Bloch, who seems to have drawn his inspiration from Edgar Allan Poe's The System of Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether. Ray Milland stars as mad doctor Fenwick, an inmate of the Norton Sanitarium. In order to prove his theory that "role-playing" is the perfect therapy for the insane, Fenwick murders the head of the sanitarium, locks up the rest of the staff, and releases the other patients, allowing them to roam about impersonating a variety of "normal" people pursuing normal careers. But Fenwick's theory blows up in his face thanks to two unforeseen events: the arrival of the niece (Claire Griswold) of the murdered sanitarium head and the grim determination of one of the lunatics to play his new "role" to the hilt. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Hanley (Rick Jason) places his confidence in a Free French guide named Massine (Peter Whitney) when the platoon is assigned to a dangerous mission behind enemy lines. But Massine with fulfill his end of the job on one condition: that he and his fellow Underground members are allowed to raid a Nazi ammunition depot. It is a praiseworthy goal--and it is also strictly against Hanley's orders. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Searching for an evacuation hospital behind enemy lines, King Company medic Doc Walton (Steven Rogers) is captured along with Pvt. Braddock (Shecky Greene) and several wounded soldiers. The prisoners are herded into a chateau owned by French aristocrat Count De Gontran (Ben Wright) and his daughter Gabrielle (Joan Hackett), currently under the command of Nazi major Richter (Dan O'Herlihy). Walton hopes that De Gontran will help him and the other Americans escape, but the Count is more concerned with the survival of himself and his home than in the outcome of the war--and to that end, he continues currying favor with Richter, a self-styled art connoisseur who has been "rescuing" the valuable paintings adorning the chateau walls, and isn't about to let the prisoners get in his way. Series stars Vic Morrow and Rick Jason do not appear in this episode, though both are billed in the opening credits. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Written by Charles Beaumont with the uncredited assistance of OCee Ritch), this compact little Twilight Zone offering gets under way as a pair of gangsters dump a corpse into a Bowery alley. Emerging from the shadows, shabby derelict Nate Bledsoe (Warren Stevens) steals the dead man's custom-made shoes -- and suddenly acquires the dead man's custom-made personality, arrogant swagger and all. "Dead Man's Shoes" made its CBS network premiere on January 19, 1962. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Journeying through the mountains, Paladin (Richard Boone) is mauled by a cougar. Seeking the aid of two men named Cull (Wright King) and Boggs (Ben Wright), the injured Paladin is instead robbed of everything he owns--and then left for dead. Painfully making his way to a nearby town, Paladin demands answers for why Cull and Boggs are seemingly free to come and go as they like, and to victimize anyone they choose. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Someone is trying to corner the market in illegal champagne before New Year's Eve of 1932--a last-ditch effort to turn a huge profit before the repeal of Prohibition goes into effect. The ensuing intrigues involve French champagne manufacturer Michel Vitton (Barry Morse), mob-connected restauranteur Barney Loomis (Robert Middleton) and Barney's covetous nephew Ed Wald (Michael Constantine). Cast as a deaf-mute assassin named Birdie is future Oscar winner George Kennedy), who during a confrontation scene with series star Robert Stack Ness applies so much physical force that Stack actually passes out on camera--an incident over which the two actors (good friends in real life) would invariably share a laugh in the years to come. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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, All Movie Guide