Allen Miner Movies

Chubasco (Christopher Jones) is a wayward youth who is given a choice by the presiding judge. His choices are go to jail or take an honest job on a fishing boat. He chooses to set sail, leaving behind his girl Bunny (Susan Strasberg) and her father Sebastian (Richard Egan), who obviously has it out for the wayward teen. He works on a tuna boat, learning to break free of a life of crime. He also meets a bordello madame named Angela (Ann Sothern) who may or may not be his mother. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

This is the first of four consecutive episodes in which Perry Mason appears only briefly, while a "guest" lawyer handles the case at hand (Raymond Burr was at the time recovering from minor surgery). No less than Bette Davis is cast as female attorney Constant Doyle, the widow of famed defense attorney Joe Doyle. Taking her late husband's place, Constant agrees to defend young Cal Leonard, who is accused of burglarizing the offices of Otis Industries and beating up a night watchman. Actually, Constant doesn't like Cal very much and was thinking of dropping the case until her curiosity was aroused by the fact that Lawrence Otis was all too willing to drop the charges against the boy. As it turns out, Cal is lucky to have Constant on his side when he charged with the murder of his cousin Steven (Jerry Oddo). Removed from the original Perry Mason syndicated rerun package in 1966, this episode remained unseen until it was telecast on cable TV in the mid-1990s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Released just in time for Easter on April 27, 1962, this Rod Serling-scripted Twilight Zone episode is widely regarded as the series' low point. A ham-handed Christ parable, the story is set in a backward Mexican village, where the arrival of a mysterious stranger named Williams (Geoffrey Horne) brings out the superstitious worst in the local citizenry. Only little Pedro (Edmund Vargas) and the town's doctor (Nico Minardos) refuse to regard Williams as a threat, but they are shouted down by a hostile mob, leading to a painfully obvious climax that wouldn't have gotten past "Creative Writing 101." The sole redeeming virtue of "The Gift" was its classical guitar score by the great Laurindo Almeida. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Mob boss Big Jahnchek (Peter Whitney) escapes Federal custody and makes a beeline for his brother Gregory (R. G. Armstrong), who has managed to bury his connection to Big Steve by changing his name to John Gregory and establishing a successful fleet of tuna boats. Motivating Big Steve's getaway is the fact that the $100,000 trust fund of Helen Gregory (Susan Seaforth), whom each brother has at one time or another claimed as his own daughter, is being mismanaged by crooked Franz Moray (Steven Geray). When Moray is murdered, Gregory is charged with the crime, and a disturbing Jahnchek family secret is in danger of being exposed. It is up to Perry Mason to clear Gregory in court and to provide a happy ending for those who truly deserve one. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

William Bendix discards his oafish "Chester A. Riley" characterization in the role of Wally Legenza, the vicious, sadistic head of the Tri-State Gang. Legenza and such fellow hoods as Big Bill Phillips (Alan Hale Jr.) and Art McLeod (Gavin McLeod) specialize in hijacking trucks and murdering the drivers in cold blood. Elliot Ness (Robert Stack) is called in to squash Legenza when his gang makes the mistake of crossing state lines. In a rip-roaring climax, Legenza makes a last-ditch effort to bump off Big Bill's girlfriend Elizabeth Dauphine (Roxane Berard), who has offered to testify against the demented hoodlum. This episode marks one of the few times that one of Elliot Ness' "Untouchables" lays down his life in the line of duty--on camera, that is. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Produced by former radio star William Conrad, this taut psychological Western features Conrad as Chris Hamish, a lawman assigned to bring back from Mexico accused murderer Robert Kallen (Anthony Quinn). Locating Kallen in a small Mexican pueblo proves easy enough, but bringing him to justice becomes a major task, as Hamish and his prisoner must traverse a seemingly endless desert alive with hostile Apaches. Hamish has promised his girlfriend, Elena (Lita Milan), to return safe and sound, and Kallen plays on both Hamish's innate decency and the lawman's increasing paranoia, with the trek quickly turning into a game of cat and mouse. Until, that is, the duo comes across a young child (Ellen Hope Monroe) orphaned by the Apaches, whose presence helps bring out the last embers of decency in both hunter and hunted. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Another of producer Howard W. Koch's TV-style budget pictures, Ghost Town is a modest western taking place during one tension-filled night. A group of stagecoach passengers are besieged by hostile Cheyenne Indians. Seeking shelter, the passengers are forced to set up camp in a deserted town. There's every possibility that the Cheyennes will be back, so no one gets a good night's sleep--but we do learn which of the passengers are heroes and which are cowards. Allen Miner, whose B westerns were usually more interesting than his TV assignments, directed Ghost Town with a minimum of waste footage. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

1954's The Black Pirates stars Anthony Dexter, who three years earlier hadn't quite set box-office records afire with his portrayal of Rudolph Valentino. Dexter heads a band of pirates who land in a sleepy Mexican village. A buried treasure is rumored to be somewhere in the vicinity, and the pirates want to get their grimy mitts on it. They enslave the villagers and force them to dig for the treasure. Black Pirates was written by Fred Freiberger, the man later responsible for the up-and-down third season of TV's Star Trek. It was filmed on location in Mexico and released stateside by Lippert Films. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide