Ralph Nelson Movies
Born in New York City, Ralph Nelson first became interested in theater while attending Bryant High School, and won a New York Times oratorical contest in 1932. He came to Broadway as an errand boy and ascended to the stage, working with Katharine Cornell, Leslie Howard, and the Lunts during the '30s. He was part of the stage company of Irving Berlin's This Is the Army during World War II, and managed to write an award-winning one-act play while serving as an Army Air Force flight instructor. His first full-length play, The Wind Is Ninety, also won an award from the National Theater Conference. Nelson came to early television as an actor, but quickly moved into the director's chair, and it is estimated that he was director and/or producer for upwards of 1000 presentations during the next decade. He was hired to direct the premiere telecast of Playhouse 90 -- where he earned an Emmy for his direction of Rod Serling's Requiem for a Heavyweight (which he later directed on screen), and was also a mainstay of such drama shows as G.E. Theater and Lux Theater. In 1963, Nelson directed the topical drama Lillies of the Field, which earned Sidney Poitier an Oscar as Best Actor. His subsequent films, including Fate Is the Hunter, Soldier in the Rain, and Father Goose, were all successful and remain interesting to look at, despite the fact that only the last has aged well. Nelson moved into serious westerns earlier than almost any other American filmmaker of the 1960's with Duel at Diablo (1966), but his major film of this period was Charly (1968), a drama for which Cliff Robertson won an Oscar. He moved back toward topical political subjects with the racial drama ...Tick...Tick...Tick... (1970) and Soldier Blue (1970), and made the only serious drama ever to come out of Hollywood about South Africa and apartheid, The Wilby Conspiracy (1975), starring Poitier and Michael Caine. Nelson's later films, including A Hero Ain't Nothing but a Sandwich (1977) were passionate and finely made, but embraced subjects to which the public in the post-Watergate era failed to connect. He returned to directing for television during the final years of his career, and scored a modest success with Christmas Lillies of the Field (1979), a follow-up to his 1963 hit. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- 1979
Originally made for television as a sequel to the classic Lilies of the Field, this film concerns an ex-soldier turned handyman (Billy Dee Williams) who returns to the Arizona chapel he built earlier. Encouraged by five nuns, he builds both an orphanage and a small school. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Billy Dee Williams, Maria Schell, (more)
- 1978
Because He's My Friend was directed for Australian television by American TV veteran Ralph Nelson. Karen Black and Keir Dullea play the parents of a mentally retarded teenager (superbly played by Warwick Poulson). The boy's condition effects the marriage both adversely and positively. The film takes on a happier aura when a normal teenager becomes the handicapped boy's close friend. Because He's My Friend is an effective companion piece to the like-vintage Australian TV movie Tim, as well as the 1977 ABC Afterschool Special presentation Hewitt's Just Different. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1978
Dyan Cannon stars in this film inspired by the true story of Sally Stanford, who rose from notoriety as the madam of a famous San Francisco brothel of the 1930s to winning election as the city's mayor in 1976. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- 1977
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Adapted from Alice Childress' inspirational novel of the same name, director Ralph Nelson's sentimental addiction drama tells the story of an intelligent yet alienated ghetto youth seduced into the world of hard drugs. Unable to stand being in the same apartment as his gruff but caring foster-father Butler (Paul Winfield), inner-city high school student Benjie (Larry B. Scott) opts to pass the time smoking grass and drinking with his good friend Jimmy Lee (Kenneth Green) and small-time drug dealer Carwell (Erin Blunt). Before long Benjie is hooked, and hanging out with local pusher Tiger (Kevin Hooks) in order to get the hard stuff. Increasingly alienated from both his foster-father and his grandmother (Helen Martin), young Benjie must rely on the assistance of a caring social worker (Claire Brennan) in order to stay clean and get back on his feet. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cicely Tyson, Paul Winfield, (more)
In this thriller, a scientist (Rock Hudson) attempts to engineer the perfect woman in a test-tube and ends up not with a beautiful lover, but instead a ruthless killer. The film is also known as Created to Kill. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rock Hudson, Diane Ladd, (more)
The Wilby Conspiracy is set in South Africa, at a time when Apartheid was the order of the day. Political activist Shack Twala (Sidney Poitier) finds an unlikely -- and reluctant -- ally in the form of the British Keogh (Michael Caine). Both Twala and Keogh are scrutinized by racist police official Horn (Nicol Williamson), who hopes that they'll lead him to the hideout of chief activist Wilby (Joe De Graft). Based on the novel by Peter Driscoll, The Wilby Conspiracy abandons its sociological overtones early on in favor of an extended chase. The film reteams Poitier and director Ralph Nelson, who, 12 years earlier, had collaborated on Lilies of the Field. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sidney Poitier, Michael Caine, (more)
- 1972
- PG
This misunderstood film is a satirical western, written, directed, and produced by Ralph Nelson, which he adapted from the book by James Graham (a pseudonym for Jack Higgins) In a restless Central American nation in the 1920s, Van Horne (Robert Mitchum), a defrocked American priest, hides a gun in his Bible and a knife in his crucifix. He rescues Emmet Keogh (Ken Hutchinson), who is being held by a group of rapacious bandits who are angry that Keogh has taken a mute native girl, Chela (Paula Pritchett), away from them. Keogh, an Irishman, and his friend Jennings (Victor Buono), a British rum-runner, are captured along with Van Horne by Colonel Santilla (John Colicos), a revolutionary leader. The colonel offers to set the three men free and send them safely to the U.S. -- if they agree to kill Tomas De La Plata (Frank Langella), the crazed local strongman. De La Plata was driven mad by Santilla's followers, who murdered his father, raped his mother, and tormented his sister into suicide. Van Horne dons his priestly garb and reopens the church in De La Plata's village, thereby setting up the trap to lure in the madman. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Mitchum, Frank Langella, (more)
- 1971
Two children set out in search of freedom and a loving home in this adventure drama based on a novel by Walter Macken. Finn Dove (Jack Wild) and his sister Derval (Helen Raye), a pair of children living in England, are tired of the tyranny of their stepfather Hawk Dove (Ron Moody), and they decide to run away to Ireland, where Finn and Derval hope to stay with their Granny O'Flaherty (Dorothy McGuire). However, the children are heirs to their grandfather's estate and stand to inherit a large fortune upon his death, so Hawk is keen on the idea of finding Finn and Derval and bringing them safely home as soon as possible. The Flight of the Doves was a reunion for Ron Moody and Jack Wild, who starred together as Fagin and The Artful Dodger, respectively, in the movie Oliver!. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- 1970
When Jimmy Price (Jim Brown) wins an upset victory for sheriff, he becomes the first black man ever to hold the job (or any elective office) in anyone's memory in his rural southern county. He also sets off an ominous rumblings as the entire county seems split apart by his presence -- Mayor Parks (Fredric March) offers him the support of his office, but many whites aren't prepared to accept a black man as sheriff, while most of the whites that can accept him aren't saying so too loudly; a lot of older black residents, remembering decades of Jim Crow laws that only lately disappeared, are more confused than encouraged by Price's victory, while younger, more radical black citizens like George Harvey (Bernie Casey) have little use for Price's straight-arrow personality; they expect him to show them favoritism, and when he doesn't, they suspect him of being an nothing but a white man in black skin. Even Price's own wife (Janet MacLachlan) wonders if the cost of his being sheriff is too high. He finds himself alone, walking a tightrope between all of the forces pulling at him, and then the whole situation threatens to explode when he arrests the good-for-nothing son (Bob Random) of a wealthy man from the next county, who has killed a child while driving drunk. Soon the local klavern of the Ku Klux Klan is planning a meeting, and a lynch mob seems to be gathering across the county line to break the prisoner loose and take care of the sheriff. Price finally gets some unexpected help from his embittered predecessor, John Little (George Kennedy) -- Little would like nothing more than to sulk over losing his longtime job, but with his wife's coaxing he realizes that he can't let Price fail without the risk of destroying everything he worked for years to build. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jim Brown, George Kennedy, (more)
A cavalry unit in Colorado is conducting two important cargoes to Fort Reunion, home of the 11th Colorado Volunteers: Cresta Marybelle Lee (Candice Bergen), the fiancée of an officer in the unit until two years ago, when she was taken by the Cheyenne, and who just escaped; and Captain Battles (Dana Elcar), the paymaster, with a strongbox containing gold. The men are tired -- almost asleep in their saddles -- and frustrated, and doubly so by the presence of Cresta, whose beauty and reputation (by virtue of living two years with "savages") is driving them to distraction; all except for Honus Gant (Peter Strauss), a neophyte trooper and wide-eyed innocent. The detachment is ambushed by a Cheyenne war party and the only survivors are Cresta and Honus, who learn to tolerate each other as they struggle across the wilderness and the desert in search of help. An encounter with white trader Isaac Q. Cumber (Donald Pleasence), a profiteer who is running guns to the Indians, nearly results in their deaths, and Honus is seriously wounded.
Cresta goes off in search of help and is picked up by a cavalry scout and brought to the 11th Colorado, whose commanding officer, Col. Iverson (John Anderson), is planning a punitive strike against a peaceful Cheyenne encampment over the massacre of the paymaster's party. Cresta tries to secure help for Honus but Iverson is too busy planning bloodshed, and her fiancé, Lt. McNair (Bob Carraway), is just too eager to pick up where he left off with her to listen to her warnings. She rides out on her own and returns to the village where she'd spent the previous two years, while Honus manages to survive to reach Iverson. He ends up along for the assault on the village, which takes place despite the chieftain Spotted Wolf (Jorge Rivera) flying a flag of truce and an American flag given him at a previous negotiation with the whites. The Native Americans defend themselves when fired upon with artillery and rifles, and all hell breaks lose -- virtually all of the men in the village are killed in the first assault, and then the soldiers spot the women, children, and old men, and there begins an orgy of rape, mutilation, beheadings, dismemberment, and torture before Honus' horrified eyes by joyously shrieking soldiers. Cresta kills a soldier who tries to rape her and intends to die with her Native American family but is pulled out, only to watch the slaughter continue. In the end, Honus is left to be marched back to Fort Reunion as a prisoner for trying to stop the killing, and Iverson expresses pride and satisfaction at what he's done, while Cresta and a tiny handful of survivors -- almost all old men and women -- watch in mute horror and anger. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
Cresta goes off in search of help and is picked up by a cavalry scout and brought to the 11th Colorado, whose commanding officer, Col. Iverson (John Anderson), is planning a punitive strike against a peaceful Cheyenne encampment over the massacre of the paymaster's party. Cresta tries to secure help for Honus but Iverson is too busy planning bloodshed, and her fiancé, Lt. McNair (Bob Carraway), is just too eager to pick up where he left off with her to listen to her warnings. She rides out on her own and returns to the village where she'd spent the previous two years, while Honus manages to survive to reach Iverson. He ends up along for the assault on the village, which takes place despite the chieftain Spotted Wolf (Jorge Rivera) flying a flag of truce and an American flag given him at a previous negotiation with the whites. The Native Americans defend themselves when fired upon with artillery and rifles, and all hell breaks lose -- virtually all of the men in the village are killed in the first assault, and then the soldiers spot the women, children, and old men, and there begins an orgy of rape, mutilation, beheadings, dismemberment, and torture before Honus' horrified eyes by joyously shrieking soldiers. Cresta kills a soldier who tries to rape her and intends to die with her Native American family but is pulled out, only to watch the slaughter continue. In the end, Honus is left to be marched back to Fort Reunion as a prisoner for trying to stop the killing, and Iverson expresses pride and satisfaction at what he's done, while Cresta and a tiny handful of survivors -- almost all old men and women -- watch in mute horror and anger. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Candice Bergen, Peter Strauss, (more)
In 1961, Cliff Robertson starred in The Two Worlds of Charley Gordon, a TV adaptation of Daniel Keyes' story Flowers for Algernon. Determined not to lose out on the film version of this play as he'd done with Days of Wine and Roses, Robertson bought up the movie rights to Keyes' story so that he and he alone would star. This determination paid off in the form of the Best Actor Academy Award for Robertson in 1968. The star plays Charly, a 30-year-old mentally retarded bakery worker. Neurosurgeon Dr. Richard Nemur (Leon Janney) and psychiatrist Dr. Anna Straus (Lilia Skala) approach Charly and ask him to participate in an experiment. Previously, Dr. Nemur was able to accelerate the intelligence of a mouse named Algernon by performing a radical new form of brain surgery; could not such a procedure work on a human being? As a result, Charly not only achieves normal intelligence, but also becomes a genius. Emboldened by his new mental status, Charly proposes marriage to his very receptive special-ed teacher (Claire Bloom). Alas, Charly notices that Algernon has begun to regress, and he reasons that he also will return to his old developmentally challenged state. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cliff Robertson, Claire Bloom, (more)
- 1967
The beauty of classical music confronts the ugliness and treachery of war in this unusual drama. Lionel Evans (Charlton Heston) is the director of a well-respected symphony orchestra touring European concert halls in 1944. In the midst of one concert, the city where they are playing is attacked by German troops, and as Evans and his musicians try to escape, they are captured by Nazi soldiers led by Col. Arndt (Anton Diffring). Evans and the orchestra are taken to a castle where they are to bide their time before being executed; but it turns out that Arndt's superior, Gen. Schiller (Maximilian Schell), is a classical music buff. Schiller commands Evans and his symphony to prepare a special concert for the Nazis, but Evans realizes that the moment the concert is over, he and his musicians will be killed. The orchestra's performances, which include works by Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Brahms, Wagner, and Schubert, were performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charlton Heston, Maximilian Schell, (more)
Frontier scout Jess Remsberg (James Garner) is crossing the desert when he spots a dead army scout and group of Apaches pursuing someone -- it turns out to be a white woman, Ellen Grange (Bibi Andersson); he gets her away from them and returns her to her home and her husband Willard (Dennis Weaver), who seems much more upset that the horse she was riding when she left is dead than he is glad that she is back. Ellen was kidnapped by the Apaches two years before and rescued a year after that, and had fled a town where her husband and everyone else had treated her as an outcast since her return. Apart from preventing her from being raped by some drunken townsmen, however, Remsberg barely has time to worry over what goes on between them, as he has a mission of his own -- tracking down the men who murdered his wife, a Comanche woman. A key clue is in the hands of the town marshal in Fort Conchos and to get there he has to scout for a cavalry unit bringing horses, ammunition, and fresh recruits to the fort, with Grange and his wife -- and the infant son she had by the Indian chieftain who took her as his squaw -- going along, with ex-buffalo soldier-turned-horse wrangler Toler (Sidney Poitier). Their party ends up under siege by Chata (John Hoyt), the Apache Indian chief and grandfather to Ellen Grange's baby, who has jumped the reservation; he wants his grandson back, and the ammunition the troop was carrying, and also intends on killing Ellen for inadvertently causing the death of his son. They all end up trapped in a box canyon while Remsberg tries to survive to get help from Fort Conchos. If this all sounds complicated, it's not, especially as told by director Nelson, in a straightforward, unpretentious, brisk, and decidedly violent fashion that anticipates his own Soldier Blue, made four years later. Every plot element links up neatly in this script, which quite effectively recalls (and weaves together) elements of the book and the movie Hondo as well as any number of revenge westerns of the 1960's. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Garner, Sidney Poitier, (more)
- 1965
Once a thief, always a thief. This is the sorry lot of Eddie (Alain Delon), an ex-convict who tries his best to go straight. He marries Kristine (Ann-Margret), who bears him a child. Seeking out a new start in San Francisco, Eddie is dogged by vengeful cop Vito (Van Heflin), who thinks that the ex-con shot him years earlier. Eddie is arrested by Vito for a crime committed by someone else. Though he is set free, he is unable to find work after the truth about his past is revealed. Kristine is forced to take a job in a strip joint (her costumes are frustratingly modest) to make ends meet, a fact that sends Eddie spiralling into a depression-and, ultimately one last caper, engineered by his brother (Jack Palance). The grim proceedings in Once a Thief were originally put down on paper by novelist Zekial Marko, who plays a small role in the screen version. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alain Delon, Ann-Margret, (more)
Deliberately casting his established screen image to the four winds, Cary Grant plays Walter Eckland, an unkempt, uncouth and unshaven beach bum in Father Goose. During World War II, Walter keeps busy relaying radio reports of Japanese air activity. But he's no hero, and in fact volunteered for this mission only because he's been promised a shipment of liquor by Australian naval officer Frank Houghton (Trevor Howard). Making matters worse for the misanthropic Eckland is the arrival of French schoolmistress Catherine Freneau (Leslie Caron) and her seven little-girl charges, whose plane has crashed nearby. The animosity between Walter and Catherine erupts into a slapping contest, with Walter dishing it out as well as taking it. Only when Catherine is bitten by a deadly snake does Walter express his affections for her. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cary Grant, Leslie Caron, (more)
- 1964
Suspense builds around the investigation of a plane crash that caused 53 deaths in this dramatic adaption of Ernest K. Gann's novel. Authorities systematically eliminate probable causes, finally placing blame on the pilot, who was seen drinking before the flight. The airline's director of flight operations, Sam McBane (Glen Ford), knowing the pilot's excellent WW II record, refuses to accept the authorities' conclusions and begins his own investigation. With the help of the only survivor, a stewardess (Suzanne Pleshette), McBane re-creates the events leading to the crash in an attempt to discover the true cause. The character of the incriminated pilot, Captain Jack Savage (Rod Taylor), is revealed through a series of flashbacks, from a wartime army camp (with a cameo by Jane Russell) to the climactic moment of the thrilling crash. Milton Krasner's crisp cinematography earned him an Oscar nomination. ~ Lucinda Ramsey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Glenn Ford, Nancy Kwan, (more)
- 1963
The unlikely duo of Steve McQueen and Jackie Gleason star in this military comedy-drama. Gleason is Master Sergeant Max Slaughter, a corpulent man perfectly content with his solitary life in the Army, where his room and board are paid for and free sodas are his for the taking. His comrade, the more ambitious Sergeant Eustis Clay (McQueen), looks forward to leaving the service and making a big success of himself in business. Nevertheless, Eustis worships the ground that the kindly Max walks on and introduces him to a pretty teenager, Bobby Jo Pepperdine (Tuesday Weld). This sets off the ire of Bobby Jo's would-be suitor Sergeant Fred Lenahan (Lew Gallo), a tough military policeman who's already got a bone to pick with Eustis, leading to a tragic turn of events for Eustis and Max. The script for Soldier in the Rain (1963) was co-written by Blake Edwards. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jackie Gleason, Steve McQueen, (more)
Sidney Poitier plays Homer Smith, an aimless ex-GI who takes a temporary handyman job at a Southwestern farm maintained by five German nuns. It is the cherished dream of the Mother Superior (Lilia Skala) to build a chapel (or, as she says, a "shapel"). She is convinced that the personable Homer has been sent from Above to help her realize her dream. He protests loudly and rudely, but she will not be dissuaded. How Homer accomplishes her goal, endears himself to the surrounding townsfolk, and avoids an arrest for a previous crime, comprises the heart of Lilies of the Field. The film, adapted by James Poe from a novel by William E. Barrett, was later remade for television, and it won Poitier an Academy Award for Best Actor, the first time that award was given to an African-American. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sidney Poitier, Lilia Skala, (more)
One of the most memorable sports dramas because of its strong character development, Requiem for a Heavyweight is carried by Anthony Quinn as the washed-up boxer Mountain Rivera, and Jackie Gleason as his sleazy manager, Maish Rennick. In the opening scenes, Cassius Clay -- before he became Muhammad Ali -- knocks out Rivera in a stunning fight sequence. Rivera's career is over, and although his trainer Army (Mickey Rooney) and a social worker (Julie Harris) encourage him with vain hopes for an alternate career, the boxer's courage is stronger than his addled senses, a serious barrier to getting any job. Then Rivera's manager Rennick breaks down and tells him he has lost a gambling bet against the fighter and needs him to bail him out -- by becoming a wrestler. The question is, will Rivera take this humiliating path just to save his unethical manager, or will he stick to his scruples and reject the idea? ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anthony Quinn, Jackie Gleason, (more)
- 1960
The first season Twilight Zone came to a delightful conclusion on July 1, 1960, with this episode, written by Richard Matheson. Coming home early one afternoon, Victoria West (Phyllis Kirk) is shocked to find her playwright husband Gregory West (Keenan Wynn) in the arms of another woman named Mary (Mary LaRoche). When Victoria demands an explanation, Gregory is forced to reveal that Mary was purely a figment of his imagination, "invented" on the writer's tape recorder. To prove this point, Gregory not only makes Mary re-appear, but also a "huge, red-eyed element." But this is not the only surprise in store for the nonplussed Victoria West. The hilarious finale finds series creator Rod Serling joining in on the festivities. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Keenan Wynn, Phyllis Kirk, (more)
- 1959
This episode bears a marked resemblance to the first-season One Step Beyond entry "Twelve Hours to Live". Once again, two complete strangers experience the same premonition, one that will thrust them headlong toward a mutual date with destiny. This time around, the wife of a prominent banker foresees the death of her husband...while at the very same moment, a machine-shop employee envisions his own demise. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
