Dave Milton Movies

This PBS family program features James the Train and his friend Thomas when they learn some valuable lessons about life. ~ All Movie Guide

David Janssen is hardly perfect casting for the role of 1920s gambling king Arnold Rothstein (Rod Steiger or Gene Barry may have been better choices), but the sure-handed direction of Joseph Newman smooths over all the rough spots in this fanciful biopic. Set up in the gambling business by crooked politico Jack Carson, Rothstein cheats his partner Mickey Shaughnessy, cheats on his lovely wife Dianne Foster, and does his best to discredit his bitterest enemy, on-the-take police detective Dan O'Herlihy. When O'Herlihy engineers the death of Rothstein's pal Mickey Rooney, Rothstein pulls strings in the New York judicial system, assuring the conviction and execution of the rogue cop. As quickly as he rises to the top of the dung-heap, Rothstein falls with equal rapidity, and ends up riddled with mob bullets. Curiously, King of the Roaring Twenties bypasses Rothstein's involvement in the "Black Sox" baseball scandal of 1919, perhaps because too many participants in that debacle were still alive in 1960 (this incident would later be covered in toto in the 1988 film Eight Men Out, which co-starred Michael Lerner as Rothstein). While King of the Roaring Twenties ignores the facts, for the most part the film is to be treasured if for no other reason than the fact that director Newman managed to draw uncharacteristically subtle performances from Mickey Rooney and Jack Carson. ~ Hal Erickson, 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

Although this story of the making of a gangland hoodlum reflects only some of the real history of the Detroit Purple Gang in it, the violence portrayed is completely truthful. The sense of reality here is increased by the use of newsreel footage. Robert Blake is "Honeyboy" Willard, a juvenile delinquent always in trouble for petty thefts and similar deeds. (The actual Purple Gang started that way just before 1920, led by the youthful Bernstein brothers.) Cop Bill Harley (Barry Sullivan) is convinced that Willard's violent side can only be tamed by a stint behind bars. Opposing him is a social worker who wants to use modern methods of therapy to correct the teen's problems. When the social worker is found brutally murdered, the cop knows that Willard is responsible. He decides to stick with the case -- in spite of the fact that the gang eventually has a lot of city and union brass in its pocket. Just as a note, the gang got their name because one citizen commented that they were tainted, like the purple color of bad meat. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

This fourth film version of the Mary Roberts Rinehart-Avery Hopwood stage chestnut The Bat is so old-fashioned in its execution that one might suspect it was intended as "camp" (though that phrase wasn't in common usage in 1959). Agnes Moorehead plays mystery novelist Cornelia Van Gorder, whose remote mansion is the scene for all sorts of diabolical goings-on. The "maguffin" is a million dollars' worth of securities, hidden away somewhere in the huge and foreboding estate. Vincent Price is seen committing a murder early on-but he's not the film's principal villain. Others in the cast include Gavin Gordon as an overly diligent detective, and former Our Gang star Darla Hood as a murder victim. The Bat was adapted for the screen by its director Crane Wilbur, himself a prolific "old dark house" scenarist and playright. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A standard crime story with a dash of a disillusioned generation of men thrown in for good measure, The Rebel Set, also known as Beatsville, is about an armored car hold-up. Mr. Tucker (Edward Platt) is the man who comes up with the idea and plan of how to carry out the robbery, and he recruits three men who are down on their luck. John Mapes (Gregg Palmer), is an out-of-work actor, Ray Miller (John Lupton) is a writer who cannot get published, and George Leland (Don Sullivan) is the wastrel son of a has-been movie star. Tucker should have thought twice about who he was recruiting -- if these men have failed at life so far, why should they succeed in something as daring as a million-dollar robbery? ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Hell's Five Hours begin ticking away when Nash (Vic Morrow), a disgruntled employee of a rocket-fuel manufacturing plant, goes berserk. Wielding a home-made bomb, Nash threatens to blow himself, his hostages and the plant to smithereens. Nash's supervisor Mike (Stephen McNally) takes it upon himself to talk Nash into surrendering, playing for time while all the fuel is pumped out of the plant's supply tanks and the rockets are removed from the premeses. Mike has only five hours (hence the film's title) to convince Nash to come to his senses. Hell's Five Hours makes up in tension what it lacks in production finesse. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This legendarily campy sci-fi epic (shot in color and CinemaScope, and rather lavish for a sci-fi film of this period) concerns a team of astronauts (all men -- this was 1958, you know) who are drawn off course and land on the planet Venus, only to discover it's populated entirely by beautiful women! The space travelers spend a lot of time drooling over their new hosts, dressed in highly practical mini-skirts, but the Venusian queen (Laurie Mitchell) does not much care for her visitors and wants to see them executed. However, not everyone on the planet takes such a hard line against the male gender. One of the Venusians is played by Zsa Zsa Gabor in what is probably the highlight of her film career; the original story was written by Ben Hecht. The producers helped stretch their budget by borrowing costumes and props from a number of other films, including spacesuits from Forbidden Planet, a spaceship from Flight To Mars and sets from World Without End (which was set on Mars, not Venus, though the differences must have escaped the film's scientific advisors). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The oft-told tale of controversial Southern-sympathizing outlaw Quantrill is recounted again in this low-budget western. Leo Gordon, possessor of one of the meanest faces in the movies, plays Quantrill, but top billing is bestowed upon Steve Cochran as Westcott, a Confederate officer assigned to collaborate with the vigilante leader in a raid on an ammunition depot in Lawrence, Kansas. Westcott is forced to move on when the ammo supply is moved, but the vengeance-driven Quantrill insists upon remaining in Lawrence, there to indulge in one of the bloodiest and most sadistic raids in Kansas history. Quantrill's Raiders was directed by Edward Bernds, who'd come a long way since his Three Stooges shorts of the early 1950s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Revolt in the Big House stars Gene Evans as a prison "lifer" who rules the roost in his particular cell block. With the help of such loose cannons as prison psycho Timothy Carey, Evans engineers a jailbreak. As the cons and the cops sweat through a standoff, it becomes clear that Evans doesn't care how many of his fellow prisoners die so long as he busts out. Conscience-stricken inmate Robert Blake saves his cell mates from the consequences of Evans' recklessness. Revolt in the Big House is excessive violent at times, but never so much as to become "Revolting in the Big House". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this western two wagon masters are wrongfully accused of driving their wagon train in to a Comanche raid and are sentenced to hang. Now they must work hard and fast to prove their innocence. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Joel McCrea essays the title role in this moody little western. McCrea is a Union officer wounded in battle, who joins up with a wagon train heading westward. He is ostracized by those passengers who'd fought on the Confederate side, though leading lady Virginia Mayo welcomes his presence. McCrea redeems himself in the eyes of the ex-Confederate homesteaders when he acts as mediator in a range dispute with a land baron (Barry Kelly)--who happens to be McCrea's own half brother. Tall Stranger is based on a novel by the prolific Louis L'Amour. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide