John Myhers Movies
Beefy, silver-haired John Myhers was a busy Broadway actor/director/playwright. In both his stage and TV work, Myhers was usually cast as executive types, both conservative and skirt-chasing. His New York theatrical credits include such farces as The Golden Fleecing and The Good Soup; he also co-starred in the touring companies of the musicals Kiss Me Kate and The Sound of Music. In films from 1958, John Myhers' favorite screen assignment was the role of corporate veep Mr. Bratt in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1967), who holds his salacious subordinates at bay with the song "A Secretary is Not a Toy." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1990
A vengeful Arab terrorist abducts the daughter of the President during a Beverly Hills shopping spree, and now only Hack Stone, a former Green Beret and current martial arts instructor can save her. This campy low-budget actioner chronicles shows how he does it. Complicating matters is the fact that the lead terrorist wants revenge upon Stone, whom he blames for the death of his family. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1981
- R
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Mel Brooks produced, directed, wrote, and starred in this episodic comedy in the spirit of Monty Python and the 1957 studio travesty The Story of Mankind. The film is divided into five sequences that play like blue-toned Eddie Cantor vaudeville sketches -- "The Dawn of Man," "The Stone Age," The Spanish Inquisition," "The Bible," and "The Future." Also included is a Brooksian depiction of The Last Supper and a long-winded sequence about the French Revolution. The film starts with a 2001: A Space Odyssey parody, narrated by Orson Welles, in which a collection of ape-men learn to stand erect (in more ways than one). The Stone Age reveals the origins of both the first homo sapien and homosexual marriages. Brooks then appears in an Old Testament sequence as Moses, descending from Mount Sinai with three heavy stone tablets bearing the 15 Commandments; after he drops one of these tablets, the laws of God become 10 Commandments. The Roman period picks up with Brooks as Comicus, attempting to get a gig as a "stand-up philosopher" at Caesar's Palace. The Spanish Inquisition is a musical production number with monks torturing Jews to lively Broadway musical strains. The final French revolution section is a broad parody of The Man in the Iron Mask story. The film closes with coming attractions of "History of the World, Part II" that features a rousing Star Wars parody (anticipating Space Balls) called "Jews in Space" that includes a jaunty theme song. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mel Brooks, Dom DeLuise, (more)
Tim Conway as Dr. Tart and Don Knotts as Inspector Winship play two bumbling Scotland Yard investigators out to solve a double murder in this send-up of film noir and the mystery story. The intrepid Winship and his assistant Tart arrive at a Gothic mansion occupied by the grieving heiress Phyllis (Tricia Noble), whose parents have just been killed. Along with Phyllis are a crazed crew of employees ranging from the warrior cook to the well-endowed maid. The inept detecting duo stumble along from one prop to the next: paintings with moving eyes, a torture chamber, a monster, caped figures, and other oddities. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim Conway, Don Knotts, (more)
Tim Conway as woeful boxer Bags and Don Knotts as his dim-witted sidekick Shake are out to save a gym and do the impossible in this predictable, cliched comedy from director Michael Preece. The setting is the 1930s and Bags is trying to make it as a boxer. Gangster Mike (Robin Clarke) decides to take advantage of the two losers, so he sets Bags up for a big championship match against a bruiser appropriately nicknamed the Butcher (Michael LaGuardia). At stake is more than the one-sided match, the dull duo's friend "Pop" Morgan (David Wayne) has bet all he has on Bags -- he needs money to save his gym from the clutches of the gangster. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim Conway, Don Knotts, (more)
- 1978
Vain Flo (Beth Howland) refuses to wear eyeglasses, concerned that everyone will call her Old Four Eyes. But after a few days of bumbling and stumbling blindly around the diner, she must bow to the inevitable. Outfitted with contact lenses, Flo sees the world in a whole new light--but this may not be a step in the right direction. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Stuart McGowan, once a leading light of TV's Death Valley Days, serves as director and writer of Billion Dollar Hobo. Tim Conway plays Vernon Praiseworthy, a dimwit who inherits a fortune from former hobo Choo Choo Trayne (Will Geer). In order to collect the legacy, Vernon must emulate Choo Choo by going "on the bum". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim Conway, Will Geer, (more)
- 1977
The Angels, assuming the usual false identities, embark upon a luxury cruise to Hawaii in hopes of proving that their ship isn't "jinxed." Unfortunately, the passengers and crew members continue to be plagued by mysterious accidents -- and more unfortunate still, the mystery villain is aware of the Angels' true identities, and he isn't above killing them off, one by one. If the shipboard sets in this episode seem familiar, it is because they are the same ones that were later utilized on another popular Aaron Spelling-produced series of the 1970s, The Love Boat. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Farrah Fawcett-Majors, Kate Jackson, (more)
This adventure chronicles two boys' search for a treasure buried somewhere in the Florida Keys during the mid 1800s. The children are assisted by three adults, who each have the their own agendas for finding the cache. The hunters are followed by a greedy gang of villains. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Foxworth, Joan Hackett, (more)
- 1976
Alice (Linda Lavin) has every reason to assume that she is the beneficiary of her late husband's insurance policy. So imagine her surprise--and outrage--upon discovering that the policy is in the name of another woman. The first airing of this episode, on October 6, 1976, occurred only in the Mountain and Pacific time zones: the rest of the country had to make do with a presidential debate between a couple of guys named Ford and Carter. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Robert Stevenson, Walt Disney Productions' house director, cobbled together his 19th family film for the organization with this slapstick sequel to the Disney comedy The Shaggy Dog (produced 17 years after the fact). Dean Jones plays Wilby Daniels, a lawyer running against the villainous John Slade (Keenan Wynn) for district attorney. His campaign is cast into doubt when he comes upon an ancient ring that transforms him into a fat sheepdog. But the campaign progresses on a level playing field when the unscrupulous Slade finds himself also turned into a canine -- a disgruntled bulldog. Another sequel, The Return of the Shaggy Dog, followed. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dean Jones, Tim Conway, (more)
In Night Train, also known as Train Ride to Hollywood Harry Williams, head singer for Bloodstone, a modern rock group, is hit on the head and imagines he's back in the Hollywood of the 1930s. On a coast-bound train, Williams rubs shoulders with reasonable facsimiles of such long-gone greats as Gable, Bogart and Laurel and Hardy. Among the impressionists roped into this patchwork epic are Guy Marks and Bill Oberlin, whose costumes are at least as funny as their lines. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Love, Willis Draffen, (more)
- 1975
- G
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Kurt Russell returns as Dexter Riley, the dedicated student of Medfield College who just can't stay out of trouble, in this follow-up to The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes and Now You See Him, Now You Don't. In this story, Dexter is trying to devise a formula for a chemistry project that will increase human strength . By accident, he discovers that, when he mixes his concoction with another student's recipe for vitamin-fortified cereal, it gives people super-human strength, but only for a few minutes. Ignoring these drawbacks, Dean Higgins (Joe Flynn) makes a deal to sell the miracle cereal to a leading breakfast-food concern, unaware that it's Dexter's secret ingredient that makes the cereal work. Meanwhile, when word gets out about the new strength-boosting cereal, several competing companies decide that they need to wipe the new product off the market. Cesar Romero returns from the first film as A.J. Arno, with Phil Silvers, Eve Arden, and Richard Bakalyan highlighting the supporting cast. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kurt Russell, Joe Flynn, (more)
A runaway box-office hit to the tune of 17 million dollars, Walking Tall is the unabashedly manipulative story of real-life Tennessee sheriff Buford Pusser. As played by Joe Don Baker, Pusser can either be regarded as a tireless champion of justice or a baseball-bat-wielding hooligan. But with some of the most scurrilous villains this side of a Republic serial as the main targets of Pusser's wrath, the audience cannot help but applaud the sheriff's strongarm methods. When the town baddies seek vengeance by killing Pusser's wife (Elizabeth Hartman), the you-know-what really hits the fan! Never resorting to subtlety, Walking Tall was such a winner that it spawned two sequels, a made-for-television movie, and a weekly TV series -- none of which were enjoyed by the real Buford Pusser, who had long since died under questionable circumstances. At the time of the film's theatrical release, the MPAA rating system was comparatively new, so the studio launched an ad campaign aimed at parents, letting them know that the R-rated Walking Tall contained violence and not sex, and therefore was good family entertainment. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1973
In her first Waltons appearance, future Oscar winner Sissy Spacek) is cast as Sarah, the sheltered daughter of hyper-religious Widow Simmonds (Allyn Ann McLerie). In a desperate attempt to emerge from her shell, Sarah all but throws herself upon John-Boy (Richard Thomas). He gently resists her romantic overtures, whereupon Sarah takes up with a callow "townie" named Theodore Claypool Jr. (Nicholas Hammond]), the son of a wealthy businessman. Ultimately, Sarah and Theodore elope--and both her mother and his father hold John-Boy responsible for this catastrophe! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
The first independent production of former studio mogul Jack Warner, 1776 was adapted from the hit 1969 Broadway musical by Peter Stone and Sherman Edwards. William Daniels, Ken Howard, and Howard Da Silva are among the many actors who recreate their Broadway roles. The story is set during the first Continental Congress, when the Declaration of Independence was drafted by such founding fathers as John Adams (Daniels) and Benjamin Franklin (Da Silva). The script attempts to "humanize" these remote historical figures by contemporizing them -- particularly the character of Ben Franklin. Blythe Danner's character of Martha Jefferson is expanded for the film version to allow for an elaborate outdoor production number. After 1776, Warner made only one more film, the 1972 "grunge Western" Dirty Little Billy. On an added note: the picture was originally rated G with its theatrical running time of 141 minutes. It was later expanded to 166 minutes; the added scenes caused the MPAA to re-rate it PG (for language) in 1992. Both versions are available on video. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Daniels, Howard Da Silva, (more)
In this light-weight Disney family fare, Dean Jones plays Johnny Baxter, who -- along with his wife Sue (Nancy Olsen) and his two kids, Chris (Kathleen Cody) and Richard (Johnny Whitaker) -- decides to leave the New York City rat-race for the clean air and easy living of the Colorado ski country. Baxter has inherited a decaying Gothic mansion and, with the love of his family and a little bit of money, he converts the old house into a popular ski lodge. While preparing his lodge for the tourists and ski bums, Baxter has to deal with a few plumbing problems, a scheming banker (Keenan Wynn), and a grizzled old miner (Harry Morgan). In typical Disney fashion, the plot culminates in a wild, slapstick snowmobile race. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dean Jones, Nancy Olson, (more)
- 1972
- G
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If anyone is interested in seeing what Kurt Russell used to do before transforming into Snake Plissken in Escape From New York, they can look no further than this labored Disney slapstick marzipan sequel to The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes. Kurt Russell, once again, is Dexter Riley, a science major at Medfield College, who, along with fellow science majors Schuyler (Michael McGreevey) and Debbie (Joyce Menges), concocts an invisibility spray. A gang of thieves, headed by A.J. Arno (Cesar Romero), want to get a hold of the formula to use in a bank robbery. The kids find themselves the prey of the crooks, as the bad guys attempt to get the spray. Meanwhile, Dexter employs the spray at a golf tournament, much to the surprise of apoplectic college president Higgins (Joe Flynn). But before Higgins can spout out "Wha? Wha? Wha?,." Arno continues onward with the chase for Dexter and the invisibility spray. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kurt Russell, Cesar Romero, (more)
- 1971
- PG
This film is based on the novel Ratman's Notebooks, by Stephen Gilbert. Bruce Davison is Willard Stiles, a 27-year-old mama's boy whose repressions are bottled up inside and come to the fore in his nervous nail-biting. As one character describes Willard, "Willard is basically an extrovert, but it's all inside." Willard and his possessive invalid mother, Henrietta (Elsa Lanchester), live in thrall to Al Martin (Ernest Borgnine), the man who took over a foundry business after the death of Willard's father. Willard inwardly seethes but mostly stays in his run-down mansion with his mother, making friends with the rats that infest the place -- he even names them, Ben and Socrates. However, when Henrietta dies, things change. Al, in a rage, kills one of Willard's pet rats. Not only that, but Al also fires Willard from his job at the foundry. Losing his patience, Willard meets with his rat friends to exact his revenge for a lifetime of humiliation and neurosis. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bruce Davison, Ernest Borgnine, (more)
- 1970
Klink orders the prisoners to send home pre-written recorded messages. Hoping to turn the tables on his captors, Hogan plans to use the recording equipment to transcribe a top-secret SS meeting. The plan hinges on Schultz, who is convinced (by Hogan) that he has what it takes to be a major singing star. Jack Riley, who later played the neurotic Mr. Carlin on The Bob Newhart Show, is here cast as an SS Man. First shown on November 15, 1970, "The Big Record" was written by R.S. Allen and Harvey Bullock. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bob Crane, Werner Klemperer, (more)
- 1969
Amazingly, Sgt. Schultz actually knows the location of an atomic bomb plant. Unable to wheedle the information out of Schultz using the standard methods (including bribing the corpulent sergeant with LeBeau's gourmet food), Hogan relies on a vial of truth serum, courtesy of the Underground. Dave Morick, Hogan's Heroes' all-purpose supporting player during the series' final two seasons, is again cast as an officer. Written by Laurence Marks, "At Last -- Schultz Knows Something" first aired on December 26, 1969. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bob Crane, Werner Klemperer, (more)
- 1969
Larry Storch guest-stars as obstreperous investigative reporter Joe Barnes. Checking on a reports of a flying nun in the vicinity of Convent San Tanco, Joe goes undercover by posing as a priest. Things reach a pretty pass when "Father Joe" manages to take a picture of Sr. Bertrille in mid-flight. Originally broadcast on October 29, 1969, "The Not So Great Impostor" was written by Dorothy Cooper Foote. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1969
After winning a supermarket contest, Jeannie (Barbara Eden) is afforded the privilege of reigning as queen of the Cocoa Beach Rodeo. The event's star cowboy Wild Bill Barrows (played by Mark Miller, the father of contemporary film star Penelope Ann Miller) develops a hankerin' for Jeannie, hoping to rope her into matrimony. Jealously, Tony (Larry Hagman) enters the rodeo himself to reclaim Jeannie--and earns not a few lumps in the process! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1969
John Abbott, a citizen of Ancient Rome, is transported against his will to the 20th Century. No sooner has he landed in Tinseltown than he's pounced upon by opportunists and sharpsters. Ad man Terry-Thomas exploits Abbott for marketing purposes, while gorgeous Lisa Seagram hopes to use the hapless Roman as a launching pad for her own showbiz career. There's a lot of comic talent in 2000 Years Later--in addition to Terry-Thomas, the film features Edward Everett Horton, Pat Harrington Jr. and Casey Kasem. In keeping with its title (in a manner of speaking), the film fares well as a 1960s time capsule, with cameo appearances by such icons of the decade as singer Monty Rock III and designer Rudi Gernreich. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1969
While Tony (Larry Hagman) and Roger (Bill Daily) are on an experimental flight to Puerto Rico, Jeannie briefly blinks Tony back to Florida to solidify some wedding plans. Alas, when she returns Tony to the plane, her magic throws the flight pattern way off course. As a result, Tony lands in Havana, where he is immediately jailed as a spy! Future "Charlie's Angel" Farrah Fawcett) makes her first appearance as Roger's occasional girlfriend Tina. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
