Carl Guthrie Movies

Murray Brock (Simon Oakland) is a crusading New York district attorney out to prove that young Eddie Dickenson (Richard Jordan) is innocent of murder in this uneven crime drama. With the help of legal assistant Dave Ryan (Karl Held), he tries to keep Eddie from being convicted and sentenced to death. The routine feature was a television pilot that did not sell and was later given to theaters for commercial release. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

This oddly technical drama about three test pilots for the X-15 devotes a great deal of time to scientific explanations and militarese, leaving slightly less time to examine the personal lives and motivations of the three pilots. The head honcho among the pilots is Lt. Col. Lee Brandon (Charles Bronson in a good performance), and Mary Tyler Moore makes her first feature-length film appearance as one of the Air Force wives who are in the background of their husbands' careers. Narrated by James Stewart, this drama was released just when the X-15 aircraft was breaking flight records. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Sounding something like a standard '40s police story, this talkative but interesting murder mystery stars David Janssen of TV's The Fugitive series. Janssen plays Tom Alder, a gumshoe looking into the murder of the secretary of a shady Hollywood film star when he discovers that the murder is linked to the disappearance of an heiress. The heiress had a run-in with a sexually warped individual who later became a certain film star. Now Alder's problem is to investigate the link further -- even after he discovers that he himself has a connection to the story through someone he met in Tokyo during the Korean War. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Johnny Cabot (Johnny Cash) is a bloodthirsty New Jersey gangster who is forced to hide out in a small California suburb after killing a cop during a job gone wrong. He's given a chance to get back in the game by Fred Dorella (Vic Tayback), a crook with a novel plan for a foolproof bank heist. Dorella has been studying the daily habits of the Harper Federal Trust vice president Ken Wilson (Donald Woods). He learns that Wilson and his wife Nancy (Cay Forester) are on a strict schedule every morning and Dorella plans to use their dull routine against them. After Wilson goes to work, Johnny tricks his way into the house with Nancy by pretending to be a door-to-door guitar salesman, and then holds her hostage. At the same time, Dorella visits Wilson at the bank and demands 70,000 dollars in cash. If he doesn't get the loot and contact Johnny by phone at a specified time, Nancy will be killed. What Dorella hasn't counted on is that the Wilson home is not a happy one, and Ken is planning on running away with his mistress that very evening. Meanwhile, the leering, sadistic Johnny taunts Nancy about being "the perfect wife." He does all he can to humiliate her, forcing her to put on makeup and a flimsy negligee, slapping her around and singing menacing songs. When the Wilsons' son Bobby (Ron Howard) comes home from school for lunch, a terrifying showdown with the police leads to tragedy. Guitar legend Merle Travis has a small role as a cowardly bowling alley owner in this crime drama, which was re-released in 1966 under the title Door-to-Door Maniac. ~ Fred Beldin, All Movie Guide

An expose on campus sex provides the basis of this bizarre film made in 1960. A college professor is taking the survey which focuses upon the sexual habits of the students. Unfortunately, some people object and bring him up on charges of indecency. The film climaxes with his trial. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This routine and somewhat trite war movie develops slowly until a group of five nurses are captured by North Korean troops and quite clearly need to be rescued. At the head of the rescue task force is Lt. Frank Davis (Scott Brady). Frank has a special interest in freeing the women because one of them, Mary (Elaine Edwards) is more than just a pretty face in a uniform. Even though she is engaged to a Navy surgeon she is falling in love with the young lieutenant, and vice-versa. In the meantime, there is the little matter of the rescue itself. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

With Gene Barry already riding the video range as legendary gunfighter-turned-lawman Bat Masterson, independent producer Walter Mirisch hired old-timer Joel McCrea to play a rather less-dandified version in this routine Western released in Cinemascope. When his brother Ed (Harry Lauter) is cowardly shot in the back and killed, Bat accepts to run for county sheriff against the corrupt Jim Regan (Don Haggerty), only to learn that the real killer is someone entirely different. Not wanting the job of sheriff in the first place but only accepting to please a lady friend, the pious Pauline Howard (Julie Adams), Bat willingly breaks the law to aid an old friend (Walter Coy), almost losing both his position and his life in the ensuing shootout. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Adapted by Christopher Knopf from a short story by C.B. Gifford, Joy Ride is a fast-paced pocket variation of the Desperate Hours/Night Holds Terror school of suspense. When middle-aged Mr. Miles (Regis Toomey) picks up a quartet of young-punk hitchhikers, he's only trying to extend the usual courtesies of the road. But the troublemaking foursome (Rad Fulton, Nicholas King, Robert Levin and Jim Bridges) assume that Miles' hospitality is borne of fear, and they decide to take advantage of the situation. The four boys invade Miles' home, trashing the place and causing Mrs. Miles (Ann Doran) to suffer a heart attack. Eventually the law catches up with the four vandals, giving Miles the opportunity for revenge, but he just isn't that sort of guy. One wonders if director Edward Bernds and actress Ann Doran ever shared any on-set anecdotes about their experiences in Columbia's 2-reel comedy unit. Joy Ride as originally released on a double bill with Unwed Mother. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This gripping drama uses archival footage combined with new footage to re-create the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. It is also the love story between a devout communist woman and the liberal son of a prominent professor. Because of their political differences, the two can never be together. Central to the story is the conflict between the father and the son. It is only after his father dies, that the son sees the ugly reality of communism. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This first "gimmick" outing from horror producer William Castle is mainly distinguished by the clever ad campaign promising $1000 insurance for each patron (from Lloyds of London, no less!) against the possibility that they may die of fright during a screening of the film. (A similar gimmick would later be employed by the producers of the less imaginative thriller The Screaming Skull, who promised patrons an all-expense-paid funeral.) Castle certainly had nothing to worry about, since there is nary a moment of heart-stopping terror to be found in Macabre. That said, the plot is consistently entertaining, involving small-town doctor Rod Barrett (William Prince) racing the clock to locate his missing daughter after she is buried alive in the town cemetery by the same psychopathic killer who murdered his wife and her sister. It's clear that Castle had not yet honed his talents as a huckster of cheap thrills -- which reached their cheesy apex in The Tingler -- but there is definitely a spark of mischief here. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

This is one of the more off-beat entries into the Frankenstein sub-genre, in that it features the original Creature, Boris Karloff (who really hams it up) playing the disfigured grandson of the famed mad baron in a style that combines gothic horror with the awe and fear created by the newly dawned atomic age. The story begins in the title year and finds Victor the III living in the ancestral castle and strapped for the cash he needs to resurrect his grandfather's experiments. He needs a fortune because this time he wants to use atomic power to bring the monster to life. To scare up the needed cash, he lets a television crew come to his famous digs to shoot a show. He ends up getting a lot more than money from the cast and crew and eventually he succeeds in creating a brand-new Creature. Unfortunately, the monster proves to be as volatile as his predecessors, and tragedy for both master and creature ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

There's a measure of sympathy for the Apaches at the beginning of Fort Bowie. Under the tyrannical rule of ambitious Major Wharton (P. Ian Douglas), a cavalry detachment slaughters a band of Apache who've arrived with the intention of surrendering. A counterattack is inevitable, but before this happens the story is sidetracked by the jealous behavior of Colonel Garrett (Kent Taylor). When stalwart young Captain Thompson (Ben Johnson) resists the romantic overtures of Garrett's wife Allison (Jan Harrison), she screams "Rape!" and Thompson finds himself facing court-martial and execution. This plot strand and several others are resolved after the Cavalry is forced to attack its own fort following an Apache takeover. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide