Don Costa Movies

In this family film, based on John D. Fitzgerald's award-winning children's novel, set in Utah during the early 1900s, a young boy has great fun conning his family, friends, and neighbors, until he finds himself in hot water. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

This movie, a sequel to The Legend of Nigger Charlie, tells the story of a Southern colonel in the Civil War who has raided locations in the North in order to capture renegade slaves for a colony of Southern aristocrats living in Mexico. Escaped slave Charley (Fred Williamson) and his friend and fellow escapee Toby (D'Urville Martin) bend all their energies to freeing the 71 blacks captured by the colonel. In the violence that follows, the Southern cause suffers. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

It's a seemingly peaceful spring morning in New York City -- graduation day at the Police Academy -- and Police Commissioner Anthony X. Russell (Henry Fonda) is looking forward to giving a speech to the new officers. But all isn't well: Russell's been given apparently incontrovertible evidence that his oldest friend, Chief Inspector Charles Kane (James Whitmore), is shaking down a bar owner, and a black minister (Raymond St. Jacques) is claiming that his son was brutalized when he was picked up for questioning in a rape/assault case. Then Russell gets a call informing him that two first-grade detectives, Daniel Madigan (Richard Widmark) and Rocco Bonaro (Harry Guardino), allowed small-time hood Barney Benesch (Steve Ihnat) to get the drop on them, steal their guns, and escape while they were trying to pick him up for questioning at the request of Brooklyn detectives -- and Benesch is now a suspect in that earlier murder in Brooklyn. Madigan has other problems, including the fact that the commissioner -- his ex-captain -- doesn't trust him, always believing him to be a loose cannon who has taken advantage of the badge in accepting favors and cutting corners where peoples' rights were concerned. Madigan also has a beautiful, upwardly mobile wife (Inger Stevens) who loves him but can't abide all the time his job takes him away from her or crimps her socializing; and he has never fully gotten over Jonesy (Sheree North), a saloon singer he knew before he was married. Madigan and Bonaro are given 72 hours to bring in Benesch and begin beating the bushes for leads. They get help from "Midget" Castiglione (Michael Dunn), a bookmaker and an old enemy of Benesch's, and a nervous, long-haired punk named Hughie (Don Stroud). While the clock ticks away on Madigan's and Bonaro's careers, the commissioner must decide how to deal with Kane, whose father -- also a police officer -- was like his own, and he must also fathom how a four-star chief could be involved with anything as tawdry as pressuring a tavern owner. Russell genuinely believes that there must be "one standard, one rule" for any member of the department, but in the course of this one weekend, he finds this notion shattered by what he discovers about Madigan, King, and himself. Meanwhile, Benesch is still on the loose, acting like a complete psycho and a threat to anyone who crosses his path. Russell's and Madigan's paths finally cross personally, as the detective proves -- and the commissioner discovers -- just how good a cop he is. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

This situation comedy comes from a Bob Fisher and Arthur Marx play. Jonathan Kingsley (David Niven) is the teaching psychiatrist at the local university and is happily married to his wife Alice (Lola Albright). The couple has two teenage daughters, and the trouble begins when the oldest daughter Linda (Christina Ferrare) begins to take an adult interest in boys. Her misadventures corrupt her impressionable sister Abbey (Darlene Carr) and is driving the head of the university, Dean Rockwell (John Harding), absolutely crazy as he fears a scandal that could blight the school. Jonathan is put under review by the board of directors. Linda falls for Jonathan's teaching assistant Richard (Chad Everett) as her father receives neighborly advise from Dr. Fleischer (Ozzie Nelson), a hopeless hypochondriac. Linda is also pursued by a spaced-out hippie (Jeff Cooper) and another admirer (Michael McGreevey). Jonathan tries to stop his daughter's lustful yearnings before the reputation of the university and his family become fodder for the local gossip mongers. The title track is sung by The Cowsills. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

This fast-paced, entertaining drama set in a high school is directed by Paul Wendkos who has a talent for turning teen-oriented movies into hits, as proven just before this release (his 1959 Gidget). The ever-young Dick Clark plays Neil, a new, dedicated history teacher who becomes involved with the lives of his students and always for the better. He also becomes involved with Joan (Victoria Shaw) the attractive secretary in the principal's office. In an era before cocaine, crack, and school shootings would destroy the nation's image of high schools forever, the problems of "delinquents" like Griff (Michael Callan), or Buddy (Warren Berlinger), whose mother is unfaithful, may seem archaic to some audiences. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi