Harry Harris Movies
- 1966
Leif Erickson and Rod Cameron guest star in this episode as two headstrong men on opposite sides of a bitter range war. Erickson plays Roy Beckwith, a cattleman who hires Jason McCord (Chuck Connors) to string barbed wire around his property. This puts Jason on a blacklist compiled by the local farmers, headed by Holland Thorp (Rod Cameron), who deeply and violently resent Beckwith's closing of their open range. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1966
Myko (Mike Kellin), the manager of an intergalactic gladiator show, arranges a boxing match between Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris) and the midget Geoo (Harry Monty). Believing that he'll receive a huge sum of money and a trip back home if he wins, Smith accepts the challenge--little knowing that the match is actually part of a wide-ranging scheme to conquer the earth. It falls to John Robinson (Guy Williams) to take Smith's place in the ring when it becomes obvious that the outcome of the bout has been "fixed" and that the Robinsons are slated for destruction. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1965
Burt Reynolds appears in this episode as Red Hand, a rebellious young Apache chief who has jumped the reservation with his family. Jason McCord (Chuck Connors) hopes to avert an all-out war with the Indians by negotiating the peaceful surrender of Red Hand, but his efforts may be thwarted by the bloodlust of Apache-hating Major Lynch (Noah Beery Jr. in a rare villainous role). "Now Join the Human Race" was later cobbled together with scenes from the multipart Branded episodes "Fill No Glass for Me" and "Call to Glory" to form the direct-to-video "feature film" Blade Rider: Revenge of the Indian Nations. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1965
This episode reunites Branded star Chuck Connors with Johnny Crawford, who from 1958 through 1963 had played Connors' son on the popular western series The Rifleman. With all of the menfolk out prospecting for silver, the town of Jefferson City has been left unguarded, save for callow young deputy sheriff Clay Holden (Crawford), a few old people and children, and a one-legged bartender (Richard Arlen). Enter a group of outlaws who kidnap Clay's young wife Karin (Charla Doherty) and order him to stay out of their way while they rob the town's bank. Riding into this tense situation, so-called coward Jason McCord (Connors) must teach young Holden the true meaning--and proper application--of courage under fire. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1965
Film favorite Joan Leslie appears in this episode as Mrs. Cooper, a Quaker widow who hires Jason McCord (Chuck Connors) as a ranch hand. It soon develops that Jason will also have to act as Mrs. Cooper's bodyguard, thanks to vengeful one-armed rancher Renger (John Ireland). Embittered over the fact that he was crippled in a war in which Mrs. Cooper's pacifist husband refused to fight, Renger is determined to drive the widow off her land--and he's not above committing extreme acts of violence to achieve his goal. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1965
Cowboy Johnny Dolan (Pat Conway) helps Jason McCord fend off three hoodlums in a barroom brawl. However, it turns out that Johnny did not rescue Jason out of the goodness of his heart: He is bounty hunter, and he intends to collect the $5000 bounty that has been placed on McCord's head. The villain of the piece is played by Michael Ansara, formerly the star of the 1959 TV western Law of the Plainsman--a spinoff from another western series, The Rifleman, which of course starred Branded's Chuck Connors. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1965
Hired by Dr. Philip Stark (Donald Murphy) to care for his invalid wife Frances, college coed Betty Kaster (Margaret Bly) goes to Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) with her suspicions that Stark plans to murder Frances for her $2,000,000 inheritance. A murder does indeed take place, but it's Stark who is killed and it's Betty who is charged with the crime. In mounting Betty's defense, Perry must wade through a veritable Tsunami of greedy relatives, and must also contend with the victim's not-so-secret girlfriend Jill Fenwick (Joan O'Brian). And there's another complication: Is the "helpless" Frances Stark really all she claims to be? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1962
Dana Andrews is ad-man Clint Lorimer in this uneven drama, the last feature film by director Bruce Humberstone, released several years after it was completed. Clint is fired from his job working for a big ad agency, and he is determined to prove himself better than his former bosses. He has two romantic liaisons, one with Peggy Shannon (Jeanne Crain) and another with Anne Temaine (Eleanor Parker). Anne works as the advertising agent for a milk company run by a weirdo exec (Eddie Albert) who plays with toy airplanes in his office, but as time passes he becomes Machiavellian and ego-maniacal. Anne herself changes from a frump to a tough and glossy businesswoman, perhaps making Clint's choice of a future bride easier. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dana Andrews, Howard St. John, (more)
- 1958
Kenneth More portrays a British gunsmith who travels to the American West. After winning a rigged poker game, More is appointed sheriff of Fractured Jaw, a wide-open town where law officers are plugged and planted on a regular basis. He befriends hard-bitten saloon gal Jayne Mansfield, who doesn't give the gentlemanly More much chance of survival. Using his wits, and blessed with a generous amount of raw luck, Sheriff More escapes death at every turn, finally becoming the "blood brother" of a previous hostile Sioux tribe. With the help of his Native American friends, More brings law and order to Fractured Jaw. The film's main advantages are Kenneth More, who is superb as always, and Jayne Mansfield, giving one of her best and least mannered performances. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kenneth More, Jayne Mansfield, (more)
- 1957
Frank Sinatra stars as legendary nightclub comic Joe E. Lewis in this dramatic screen biography. In the 1920s, Lewis was a popular singer in Chicago who could fill any nightclub he chose to play. This doesn't go unnoticed by the mobsters who control many of the city's venues; when they ask Lewis to leave his steady gig and come work for them, he politely but firmly refuses. This does not make Al Capone and his men happy, and they respond by brutally attacking Lewis, cutting his throat and damaging his vocal cords so severely that he can never sing again. Lewis sinks into a deep depression and develops a highly caustic sense of humor, but his friend Austin Mack (Eddie Albert) suggests that he could put his sharp wit to work as a comedian. With little to lose, Lewis tries his hand at comedy, and with the encouragement of famous entertainer Sophie Tucker, Lewis once again rises to stardom as his salty material makes him the talk of late-night spots and burlesque houses everywhere. Along the way, he becomes involved with chorus girl Martha Stewart (Mitzi Gaynor) and wealthy socialite Letty Page (Jeanne Crain); while he marries Martha, he's not able to get Letty out of his thoughts for long. Lewis' romantic conflicts and the pressures of success fan the flames of his already potent taste for alcohol, and soon Lewis becomes a bitter drunk whose addiction to the bottle threatens to send his career (and his life) back into the gutter. The classic Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen number "All the Way" was introduced in The Joker Is Wild, and it won a 1957 Academy Award for Best Song; the film was later re-released as All the Way. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Frank Sinatra, Mitzi Gaynor, (more)
- 1951
One of only five films directed by Academy Award-nominated editor Stuart Gilmore, this 1951 Western stars Robert Young as Dan Craig, a gambler who may be the only man who can stop a war between a tribe of Native Americans and a group of white settlers. Shortly after the U.S. Civil War, Frank Crawford (Reed Hadley), a crooked politician, concocts a scheme to pillage the vast quantities of gold present on Apache tribal land. If Crawford can incite a war, he can clear the Apaches from the area and the gold will be his. Luckily Craig steps in, and with the help of Charlie Wolf (Jack Buetel), a half-Apache, helps prevent the tribe members from playing into Crawford's plan. But when Wolf's sister is murdered, he can no longer resist the urge to rise up, leaving Craig as the only one to avert a disastrous battle. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Young, Janis Carter, (more)
The third of western hero James Warren's trio of RKO Radio vehicles, Code of the West was like its predecessors based on a story by Zane Grey. Warren plays Bob Wade, a settler on the Arizona Strip, circa 1880. Representing his fellow settlers, Wade stands up to gambling boss Carter (Raymond Burr), who knows that the railroad intends to extend through Arizona and plans to drive the homesteaders out of the territory. Likewise defying the crooked Carter is Wade's Mexican-Irish sidekick, Chito Rafferty (John Laurentz). Code of the West was previously filmed in 1925 and 1934 (the latter version, titled Home on the Range, starred Randolph Scott). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Warren, John Laurenz, (more)
