George Marshall Movies

This comedy begins when Peter Ingersoll (Jerry Lewis) hears from Dr. Carter (Peter Lawford) that he has only a few months to live. Peter's wife Nancy (Anne Francis) suggests her husband spend his remaining days fishing, so Peter embarks on a world-wide expedition, fishing in the most exotic locales at every corner of the globe. After running up over $100,000 on his credit card, Peter is surprised to see Dr. Carter, who has followed him to Lisbon. The good doctor informs Peter that a mistake has been made; he is not going to die. However, the shock of his credit card debt almost does kill him. He and the good doctor agree he should feign his demise in order to collect on the life insurance. Peter goes along with the plan until he discovers his wife and doctor are in cahoots and plan to use the money for themselves. Lewis provides his legendary physical comedy that has made him an international star, most notably in France. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

In this romantic comedy, a rebellious East German athlete forgoes her dowdy uniforms in favor of daring miniskirts. Soon the leggy track star attracts a lustful villain. To escape, she pole vaults over the Berlin Wall. There she is befriended by a broke black marketeer who has secretly agreed to return her to the communists in exchange for badly-needed money. He hides her in the apartment of an old army buddy of his who secretly works for the CIA. The smuggler is preparing to turn the girl over when he realizes that he is in love. The fellow is still busted and so tries to convince his pal to let her work for the CIA. When the athlete learns about this, she is crushed and decides to return to East Germany. Later, to prove he does love her, the smuggler dresses in drag and sneaks into East Berlin to see her. The woman is bowled over and together, they creep back into West Germany. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Union Colonel Brackenby (Melvyn Douglas) and his second-in-command, Captain Heath (Glenn Ford), attempt to command a rather inept cavalry unit during the Civil War. General Willoughby (Jim Backus) heads them out West on assignment rather than allowing them to foul things up where it counts. They soon get involved with Martha Lou, a confederate spy (Stella Stevens) posing as a prostitute, and her boss, Jenny (Joan Blondell) as well as a group of renegades and an Indian chief. In spite of their ridiculous slapstick antics, they manage to carry out their mission. This comedy was based on Company of Cowards, a novel by Jack Schaefer. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide

This charming tale is about a young girl's father and his slightly erratic behavior after sampling a refreshing alcoholic beverage. Although Papa Jack Griffith (Jackie Gleason) never appears to be drunk, his "delicate condition" is well known to his family. His wife is definitely unhappy over his penchant but loves him just the same. He is adored by his youngest daughter, six year old Corinne (Linda Bruhl). When he tries to buy a pony for Corinne, he not only gets the pony but the entire broken down, debt ridden circus as well. This is too much for wife Ambolyn (Glynis Johns), who packs up the kids and heads for her father's house in Texarkana. Jack follows with the entire circus in pursuit to take his loving family back home. He also hoodwinks some local investors to put money into a proposed drug store, thereby circumventing a blue law that forbids the sale of alcohol. Gleason's performance contain many fine moments that run the full spectrum of human emotions and clearly illustrates why he has deservedly been referred to as "The Great One." ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Filmed in panoramic Cinerama, this star-studded, epic Western adventure is a true cinematic classic. Three legendary directors (Henry Hathaway, John Ford, and George Marshall) combine their skills to tell the story of three families and their travels from the Erie Canal to California between 1839 and 1889. Spencer Tracy narrates the film, which cost an estimated 15 million dollars to complete. In the first segment, "The Rivers," pioneer Zebulon Prescott (Karl Malden) sets out to settle in the West with his wife (Agnes Moorehead) and their four children. Along with other settlers and river pirates, they run into mountain man Linus Rawlings (James Stewart), who sells animal hides. The Prescotts try to raft down the Ohio River in a raft, but only daughters Lilith (Debbie Reynolds) and Eve (Carroll Baker) survive. Eve and Linus get married, while Lilith continues on. In the second segment, "The Plains," Lilith ends up singing in a saloon in St. Louis, but she really wants to head west in a wagon train led by Roger Morgan (Robert Preston). Along the way, she's accompanied by the roguish gambler Cleve Van Valen (Gregory Peck), who claims he can protect her. After he saves her life during an Indian attack, they get married and move to San Francisco. In the third segment, "The Civil War," Eve and Linus' son, Zeb (George Peppard), fights for the Union. After he's forced to kill his Confederate friend, he returns home and gives the family farm to his brother. In the fourth segment, "The Railroads," Zeb fights with his railroad boss (Richard Widmark), who wants to cut straight through Indian territory. Zeb's co-worker Jethro (Henry Fonda) refuses to cut through the land, so he quits and moves to the mountains. After the railway camp is destroyed, Zeb heads for the mountains to visit him. In the fifth segment, "The Outlaws," Lilith is an old widow traveling from California to Arizona to stay with her nephew Zeb on his ranch. However, he has to fight a gang of desperadoes first. How the West Was Won garnered three Oscars, for screenplay, film editing, and sound production. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

George Marshall directed this mild sex comedy about a showgirl who marries a U.S. Air Force sergeant and puts his love to the test by decreeing her body off-limits to him for a 30-day period (usually something built up to in the course of a marriage over a period of years). Debbie Reynolds plays Maggie Putnam, a vivacious showgirl who dreams of marrying a rich man. Instead, in an impulsive move, she marries Sgt. Joe Fitzpatrick (Glenn Ford), a penniless Air Force sergeant who wins a $40,000 car. He is assigned to a new post in Spain, and the two lovebirds pack up for Europe. Unfortunately for Joe's libido, Maggie initiates the aforementioned test, and Joe, laughingly at first, agrees to go along with it -- reasoning that it is lonely in Spain without the bull. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

George Marshall directed this breezy romantic comedy starring Tony Randall and Debbie Reynolds. Randall plays Lorenzo Charlton, a stuffy tax investigator sent to the farm of Pop Larkin (Paul Douglas) and Ma Larkin (Una Merkel) to find out why they haven't been paying taxes. He discovers that the Larkins, instead of money, use a homegrown barter system. Their complex economic network causes Lorenzo to drink one home brew too many. Awakening from a hangover, he sees a vision of loveliness before him -- the Larkin's spunky daughter Mariette (Debbie Reynolds). Enraptured by Mariette, he decides to stick around and help the family out of their onerous tax burden. Further research reveals an ancestral claim dating to the Civil War -- in reality, the government owes the Larkins $14 million. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

The Sheepman was touted as a comedy by some of MGM's publicity people. It really isn't, but this western does have its lighthearted moments. Glenn Ford stars as a hard-bitten sheep farmer, running up against the opposition of cattle ranchers. Shirley MacLaine is a no-nonsense frontier girl who becomes the bone of contention between Ford and cattle baron Leslie Nielsen. Ford is able to get a leg-up in the community by humiliating Nielsen's top gun (Mickey Shaughnessy) in public. The range war comes to an end when Ford and Nielsen go one-to-one. Because The Sheepman didn't do well in its initial engagements, MGM reissued the picture under the more aggressive title The Stranger With a Gun. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this western, a cavalryman disobeys his officer's command to massacre Indians at Sand Creek, goes AWOL and heads for his home in Texas where he wants to protect the women who will soon bear the brunt of the Indians' revenge. Because he defected from the cavalry, his friends and neighbors consider him a traitor, but the young man disregards them. With his expert advice, the women become crack shots. He trains them at an abandoned mission. One of the women is a real smart aleck and it is she whom he falls in love with. When the angry Indians arrive, the ladies defeat them. Later, the young deserter is found not-guilty during court-martial proceedings. His C.O. is not so lucky and is charged with the Sand Creek slaughter. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Hot on the heels of Safari came another Columbia-released, African-filmed adventure, Beyond Mombassa. Matt Campbell (Cornel Wilde) arrives in Kenya on a double quest. He hopes to locate a valuable uranium mine, and also to learn the "whos, whats and whys" of his brother's murder. Joing Campbell's safari are missionary Ralph Hoyt (Leo Genn) and Hoyt's niece Ann Wilson (Donna Reed). After several attempts are made on Campbell's life, he comes to the conclusion that one of his travelling companions was responsible for his brother's death. Sure enough, the villain has not only dispatched Campbell's brother, but has also arranged the evidence so as to place the blame on a legendary tribe of "leopard men". As for why he does it, it is best to see Beyond Mombassa for further details. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This musical is a contemporary version of Aristophanes' ancient play Lysistrata. Instead of Greece, this play is centered in the town of Osawkie, Kansas and centers on the feuds between the men there and those of nearby towns. They are fighting over the possession of a safe filled with important county records. The women, sick of all the fighting, band together, lock themselves in a fortress and refuse to make any form of love with the brutes until they stop. They do, and prairie love blossoms. Songs include: "Lysistrata," "Send Us a Miracle," "My Love Is Yours," "Travellin' Man," "What Good Is a Woman Without a Man?" "There's Gonna Be a Wedding," "The Second Greatest Sex," "How Lonely Can I Get?" ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

On paper, Red Garters sounds like a wonderful idea: a raucous spoof of westerns, done up in the stylized fashion of a Broadway musical. Rosemary Clooney and Guy Mitchell, both popular recording stars of the era, head the cast as Calaveras Kate and Reb Randall, while Jack Carson is on hand as wheeler-dealer frontier lawyer Jason Carberry. The plot, which hardly matters, concerns Reb Randall's efforts to find out who was responsible for his brother's death. The film's basic joke is that none of the traditional western cliches come to fruition: the bad guys outdraw the good guys, the damsel-in-distress isn't rescued in the nick of time, and so on. Also, this may well be the first sagebrush satire in which the male characters doff their hats respectfully when mentioning "The Code of the West" (it certainly wasn' t the last!) To emphasize the unreality of the entire project, the backgrounds are designed impressionistically, like an animated cartoon. Red Garters might have worked better as the closing production number on a TV variety program than a 91-minute feature film; even so, everyone involved (especially tunesmiths Jay Livingston and Ray Evans) deserves credit for trying something different. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

At age 50, Bob Hope was getting a bit too long in tooth for frenzied farces like Off Limits, but his surplus of energy makes up for his chronological unsuitability. Hope plays the manager of boxing champ Stanley Clements, who has just received his draft notice. Gangster Marvin Miller strong-arms Hope into enlisting himself to keep tabs on Clements; when the latter is given a medical discharge, poor Hope is stuck in uniform. During training, Hope makes the acquaintance of draftee Mickey Rooney, an aspiring boxer who wants Hope to handle him. There's one obstacle, however: the Mick's aunt doesn't want her nephew to box. Hope promises to talk the "old lady" into his way of thinking, only to discover that Rooney's aunt is the luscious Marilyn Maxwell. Before the climactic bout between Rooney and Clements, Hope and Rooney sign up to be military policemen under the aegis of buffoonish CO Eddie Mayehoff. If Bob Hope looks slightly uncomfortable at times in Off Limits, it is probably because he isn't politely inclined to such upstarts as Mickey Rooney and Eddie Mayehoff getting most of the laughs. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide