L.Q. Jones Movies

Adapted by Leon Uris from his own novel, the film follows a group of World War II marines, from Basic Training to Battlefield. Major Van Heflin knows that his men are spoiling for a real fight, but must make do with the desultory skirmishes assigned them by the Brass. All this changes with an onslaught of heavy-duty battling in the South Pacific. Aldo Ray plays a tough leatherneck who falls in love with demure Nancy Olson, while James Whitmore, Tab Hunter, Dorothy Malone and Raymond Massey costar. And watch for young Justus McQueen, cast as private L.Q. Jones; McQueen liked his character name so much that he adopted it as his professional cognomen. Composer Max Steiner's musical score earned him an Oscar nomination. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Apparently as a reward for his excellent performance in the 1954 western Drum Beat, Charles Bronson was given a leading role in this Warner Bros. programmer. The action takes place during the Korean War: a melting-pot unit of American soldiers, together with three British troopers, find themselves trapped behind enemy lines. Making their way to a hilltop that is under United Nations control, these squabbling stragglers discover that the defending soldiers have been wiped out by the Enemy. Ordered to hold the hill under reinforcements arrive, the soldiers, under the command of Lt. Flagler (Richard Conte) and Sgt. Gaspari (Charles Bronson), endeavor to do their duty without getting picked off themselves. As tension mounts, the Americans and the Brits get on each other's nerves, but it's "all for one, one for all" when it really counts. Future TV producer Aaron Spelling shows up in a bit part. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This high-flying thriller utilizes exciting footage of the USAF Thunderbirds in action--an interesting and authentic look into the world of Air Force test pilots. Set at Edwards Air Force base in California, the story centers on a dishonored pilot who is no longer allowed to fly. It seems that as a Korean POW he was brutally tortured and brainwashed until he could bear no more and he eventually cracked. Though it has been many years, he wants to clear his name and fly again. Unfortunately a general fears the pilot could again lose it during the testing of a highly experimental plan. Fortunately, the general's secretary is the former girl friend of the pilot and she convinces the general that he is rock solid. The pilot then sets out to prove it for himself. James Garner made his big screen debut in this film. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Robert Wagner stars as insensitive Southern landowner who gets a much-overdue dose of humility and democracy when he's drafted into the army. Unable to curb his arrogance, Wagner runs afoul of a sadistic military officer (Broderick Crawford), who makes it his mission in life to break the recalcitrant recruit. After rescuing a fellow soldier (Buddy Ebsen), Wagner discovers he has the inner strength to change his outlook on life, and to stand up to the vicious Crawford. Based on a novel by Francis I. Gwaltney, Between Heaven and Hell features uncredited appearances by Frank Gorshin, Scatman Crothers, and Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this frantic service comedy, a group of bored-to-tears American GI's stationed at a medical facility in France would like nothing more than to have a big party to let off steam -- except for the possibility of having a big party with some of the nurses they work with. However, it seems that the nurses are officers and the GI's are enlisted men, which means the Army forbids them to socialize, and Capt. Locke (Ernie Kovacs), the camp's Commanding Officer, is not a man to bend the rules. But Private Hogan (Jack Lemmon) is not the sort of guy to let the rules get in the way of a good time, and with the help of Yancy Skibo (Mickey Rooney), a sergeant with a talent for scaring up needed supplies, and Mme. LaFour (Jeanne Manet), a local hotel manager with a soft spot for making money off American servicemen, Hogan hatches a plan to make his dream a reality. Hogan's lady friend, Lt. Betty Bixby (Kathryn Grant), isn't quite as convinced as her beau on the potential success of this scheme. Operation Mad Ball was the first directorial effort from former actor Richard Quine, and afforded Jack Lemmon his first starring role; Blake Edwards also contributed to the screenplay. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In the psychological WW2 drama Torpedo Run, Glenn Ford plays submarine commander Barney Doyle, who is obsessed with sinking a particular Japanese aircraft carrier. Several months earlier, the carrier had escaped destruction by shielding itself with a POW transport ship, which was sunk by Doyle's torpedoes. The sunken transport had been carrying Doyle's wife and daughter, captured in the Philippines. This tragically unavoidable incident has transformed Doyle into a modern Ahab, mercilessly driving the men under him towards the single goal of blowing the hated enemy aircraft carrier out of the seas. Finally, Doyle achieves his goal, and all is forgiven between himself and his crew, especially his second-in-command Archer Sloan ($Ernest Borgnine). Unfortunately, Doyle's sub was irreparably damaged in the attack, making it necessary for him to attempt an escape. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Though several concessions to the censors and the box-office were made in adapting Irwin Shaw's bestseller The Young Lions to the screen, the end result is generally effective and satisfying. Set during World War 2, the film concentrates on three individuals, one German, two American. Marlon Brando plays an idealistic German whose early fascination with Nazism leads to doubt and disillusionment. American entertainer Dean Martin, on the verge of the Big Time, does his best to dodge the draft but ends up in uniform all the same. And American Jew Montgomery Clift, so sensitive that he's practically breakable, must come to grips with anti-Semitism, not only from the Germans but also from his fellow soldiers. Romance enters the picture in the form of Hope Lange as Clift's gentile girlfrind, Barbara Rush as the socialite who shames Martin into joining up, and May Britt as Brando's vis-a-vis. Screenwriter Edward Anhalt was obliged to shoehorn in a boot-camp sequence indicating that the Brass disapproved of the bigoted behavior of Clift's topkick Lee van Cleef (as if racism was a mere aberration during the 1940s), and to "slightly" alter the ending of the book, in which the embittered but still patriotic Brando character, shouting "Welcome to Germany!," machine-guns the Martin and Clift characters (in the film, it is Brando who bites the dust, symbolically dying for Hitler's sins). Maximillian Schell offers a starmaking turn as Brando's cynical comrade, while an uncredited John Banner, "Sergeant Schultz" on Hogan's Heroes, shows up as a pompous burgomeister who feigns ignorance of the hellish concentration camp in his community. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A rustic drama set in the early 20th century, Hound Dog Man is the simple story of a young man, Spud Kinney (Dennis Holmes) constantly in hot water for disobeying his mother (Betty Field). The lad should be watching the family farm, but he falls in with his older brother, Clint (pop music's teen heartthrob Fabian), and his reckless buddy Blackie Scantling (Stuart Whitman) who take him hunting in hillbilly country. The boy falls in love with a beautiful mountain girl (Carol Lynley), while Blackie has his own fling with another attractive hillbilly maiden, Nita Stringer (Dodie Stevens), and then becomes mixed up with an older, married woman, Sussie Bell (Margo Moore). Not much else happens, but perhaps not much else is needed. This leisurely little film represents the film debut of Fabian, who not unexpectedly sings several songs (some written by another teen idol, Frankie Avalon). Lynley and Whitman would team up again several years later for the much underrated Shock Treatment. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Warlock offers us a mean-spirited, mercenary Henry Fonda and an honest, peaceloving Richard Widmark. A Wyatt Earp-like frontier marshal, Fonda agrees to protect the small town of Warlock from an outlaw gang, but only if he's permitted to plunder the town's cash reserve. Widmark, the town deputy, is a reformed outlaw whose willingness to fend off the invading criminals is motivated by his fondness for his new neighbors. Looming large in the proceedings is Anthony Quinn as the glory-grabbing Fonda's sidekick. Adapted by Robert Alan Aurthur from a novel by Oakley Hall, Warlock is a good example of the "thinking man's westerns" prevalent in the late 1950s-early 1960s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Oklahoma land rush of 1889 provides the starting point for this western drama, based on a novel by Edna Ferber. Yancey Cravat (Glenn Ford) is an impulsive, short-fused cowboy who has married an immigrant woman, Sabra (Maria Schell). Together, Yancey and Sabra claim a homestead, and Yancey starts a newspaper. While he doesn't have much of a head for business, Sabra does, and when she takes greater control of the paper, it grows into a profitable and influential journal. Eventually, Yancey becomes a well-recognized figure, and it's suggested that he run for public office. However, Yancey finds himself unable to support legislation that would steal more land and mineral rights away from the Native Americans who first settled the land. Cimarron was previously filmed in 1931; this version reduced the role of stereotyped black characters and has Native American actors playing the "Indians," including Eddie and Dawn Little Sky. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Critics consistently consider this historical drama one of the worst films Disney ever made. It is the true-tale of ten heroes from the Civil War who ride down the raging Colorado in hopes of mapping it. The mission is led by the Major John Wesley Powell who lost an arm during the war. Their fateful 1869 river trip is arduous and long and in the end only six make it out of the Grand Canyon alive. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Don Siegel's only war film and unfortunately his only teaming with Steve McQueen, an actor whose rebellious persona jibed well with the director's vision, it puts the star in the familiar role of antihero. His character, Reese, is an embittered G.I. who has just been sent back to join his war-weary unit holding down a position opposite a pillbox on the Siegfried Line in Belgium. Recently demoted back to private from staff sergeant for drinking, he chafes under all authority, and is a pariah to fellow grunts, despite their awareness of his extraordinary courage in battle. A natural leader, he persuades his sergeant (Harry Guardino) to implement a plan he's formulated to keep the Germans at bay by making them believe that the small outfit is larger than it is. While this is temporarily effective, Reese knows that it's only a matter of time before the enemy discovers the truth, and takes it on his own authority to lead an attack on the well-defended pillbox, although his unit has been assigned only to hold their ground. ~ Michael Costello, All Movie Guide

In this western adventure set in a Mexican border town, two prisoners Foster and Pickett (Audie Murphy and Charles Drake), who are chained to a stake, somehow escape with other prisoners. They are led by cruel outlaw Lavalle (Harold J. Stone) who steals $12,000 in securities. Later the two fugitives try to steal the securities from the gang-leader. Unfortunately, they are caught by Lavalle. He holds Foster hostage and sends Pickett to town to cash the securities. The fugitive gives the resulting loot to his ex-girlfriend Estelle (Kathleen Crowley), and returns with nothing. The enraged Lavalle then lets Foster go to get the money. He meets the newly wealthy dance-hall girl who explains that Pickett gave her the money to make up for his losing her life savings gambling. She then grudgingly hands Foster the money. But as he returns to the outlaw lair, he is unaware that Estelle pursues him. Unfortunately, Lavalle sees her, and in the ensuing scuffle Pickett dies trying to protect Foster and the girl. Later the two flee with the angry Lavalle in hot pursuit. In the end, fugitive Foster kills the gang leader. He and Estelle then settle down and lead a peaceful life. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide