Claire Carleton Movies

After another of Marilyn's boyfriends runs away in horror upon seeing the monstrous Munsters, Grandpa Munster (Al Lewis) concludes that Marilyn (Beverly Owen) will never land a beau without his help. Dutifully, Grandpa repairs to his laboratory to cook up a love potion, which Lily (Yvonne DeCarlo) mixes with some oatmeal. As a result, everyone in the family finds himself or herself irresistable to the opposite sex--everyone, that is, except poor Marilyn! This episode of The Munsters is a black-and-white remake of the series' original color pilot, which featured actors other than series regulars Yvonne DeCarlo, Beverly Owen and Butch Patrick (Eddie Munster). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Nightclub singer Crystal Coe (Polly Bergen) is less than thrilled when her former husband, Tony (Joe Maross), shows up. It seems that Tony has served a lengthy prison sentence for a crime that Crystal had committed. Now Crystal must find a way to divest herself of Tony for good -- never suspecting that in doing so, she will end up a very, very sorry young lady. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Miracle of the Hills is a melodramatic, standard western with two ostensible "enemies" that fuel the plot: a decent town preacher, Scott Macauley (Rex Reason) and an "indecent" former prostitute, Kate Peacock (Betty Lou Gerson). The preacher is on his way to cleaning up his parish and the town but comes up against Peacock, who now owns the main source of employment in the town, a coal mine. In revenge for the way she was treated in the old days, she lords it over the town and her workers. Just as the preacher is mediating the best he can between Peacock and the rest of the community, three young boys get trapped in the mine. (Jay North, just before his Dennis the Menace fame on American TV, plays one of them). Sure enough, it is a potential disaster that galvanizes everyone and erases past battle lines. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In this western, an embittered cavalry sergeant must take over his regiment after their commanding officer is killed during an ambush. To save them, he leads the troop through Apache territory because it is the quickest way to reach the fort. The members of the regiment do not trust their new leader's reasoning. They suspect he is taking them through the restricted territory so that he can get revenge upon the Apaches who killed his wife and kids several years ago. The troop find themselves suffering a series of increasingly deadly attacks. Many die, until the soldiers, believing that the sergeant has lost his mind, rebel and kill him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Practical joker Bradley (Albert Salmi) chooses as his next victim Pop Henderson (Roscoe Ames), the nearsighted, hearing-impaired attendant at the local morgue. Sneaking onto a slab, Bradley pretends to be a corpse -- and when he "comes to life," the terrified Henderson nearly jumps out of his skin, and almost loses his job. But there's a comeuppance in store for Bradley when one of his previous victims knocks him unconscious, leaving him in a state of complete paralysis.... ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this occult obscurity, an old hillbilly named Pete Jensen (Ed Nelson) makes a pact with the Devil and returns to the town of Furnace Flats, NM, as a much younger man. Claiming to be his own nephew, Nick Richards, he romances pretty Nell Lucas (Jean Allison). Her fiancée David (Richard Crane) is mauled by his own dog, leaving him scarred and bitter. Doc Lucas (Edgar Buchanan) and Sheriff Fuller (Spencer Carlisle) figure it out and shoot Richards down after he turns into a snake and a horse. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

The Buster Keaton Story is the sublimely inaccurate life story of immortal film comedian Buster Keaton, played by Donald O'Connor. The film begins with young Buster appearing in his parents' circus acrobatic act (the real Keatons never appeared in a circus, but were vaudevillians instead). After Buster's dad dies (an event that actually occurred when Keaton was in his 30s and already a star), the boy strikes out on his own. He makes it into silent films as a top slapstick comic (this much is accurate), but his private life is complicated by two loves, a "sweet" girl (Ann Blyth) and a wealthy temptress (Rhonda Fleming) (Buster was married three times, but not to either one of the ladies depicted in this film). When talkies come in, Buster is browbeaten by autocratic director Peter Lorre (all of Keaton's talkies were directed by Eddie Sedgwick, one of his best friends) and finds himself unable to handle dialogue (no comment). He turns to drink (true) and destroys himself in Hollywood (partly true). But through the love of good girl Ann Blyth, Buster makes a comeback in vaudeville, and finally decides to get married and settle down for the first time in his life (Buster did tour in vaudeville with wife Eleanor Norris, who was wife number three and whom he met nine years after the advent of talkies). The nicest thing about The Buster Keaton Story was that the amount Paramount paid Keaton for permission to film his "life story" ($50,000) was large enough for Buster to remain financially solvent for the rest of his life. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The inherent trashiness of Reform School Girl is redeemed by the sincere performance of Gloria Castillo and the matter-of-fact direction of Edward Bernds. Castillo plays mixed-up teenager Donna Price, who is shipped off to a girl's reformatory when she is involved in a fatal car crash. Actually, Donna is innocent, but she refuses to reveal who was driving. Only when the culprit (a pre-77 Sunset Strip Edward Byrnes) reveals himself to be a total piece of excrement is Donna able to extricate herself from her dilemma. The film served as the movie debut of Sally Kellerman, cast as a butchy inmate. Reform School Girl was remade for television in 1994 as part of Showtime cable's "Rebel Highway" series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Given its cast and director, it is disheartening that The Black Sleep isn't any better than it is. Basil Rathbone heads the cast as Sir Joel Cadman, who uses a mind-controlling drug known as "The Black Sleep" to place brilliant scientist Gordon Ramsay (Herbert Rudley) under his control. Cadman needs Ramsay's intellect and expertise to aid him in a series of mysterious, covert experiments involving brain transplants. Evidently Cadman has already endured a few failures, as witness the present feeble-minded state of his former "volunteer" Mungo (Lon Chaney Jr.). Ramsay and heroine Laurie Munro (Patricia Blake) finally learn what Cadman is up to when they stumble upon a dungeon full of his previous "experiments," including a demented, emaciated man (John Carradine) and a blank-eyed monstrosity (Tor Johnson). In his last mainstream film, Bela Lugosi essays the thankless role of Cadman's mute servant. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Nightclub singer Ilona Vance (Vera Ralston) is Accused of Murder in this Republic programmer. And from the looks of things, Ilona is guilty; she was, after all, the last person to see crooked lawyer Hobart (Sidney Blackmer) alive. But Lt. Roy Hargis (David Brian) is convinced that Ilona is innocent, and he intends to prove it. Except for the mildly surprising denoument, there is little in Accused of Murder that is not thoroughly predictable. Star Vera Ralston, the wife of Republic chieftan Herbert J. Yates, is her usual expressionless self. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

For their first release of 1955, the Three Stooges dug out their old Fright Night (1947), filmed a couple of new scenes, and released it as a brand-new comedy short. Edward Bernds, who had helmed Fright Night, sued Columbia for director credit, a suit that was eventually settled out of court for paltry 2,500 dollars. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The witness of the title is Barbara Stanwyck, who insists she's seen a man strangling a girl in the apartment across the street. The murderer is George Sanders, an ex-Nazi with plenty of experience in covering his tracks. Deftly disposing of body and clues, Sanders is able to convince the authorities that Stanwyck is hallucinating. But Stanwyck persists, forcing Sanders to show his hand in a fateful climax. Witness to Murder is far beneath the talents of its stars, though both Stanwyck and Sanders, pros that they are, give the material the old "Academy Award" treatment. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Will Ballard (Rod Cameron) is the longtime foreman of the Hatcher ranch, a spread renowned for its size and the wealth it contains. When owner Phil Evarts dies suddenly, the speculation in the territory is that Hatcher will be broken up, especially since it was Evarts' determination coupled with Ballard's skills as a foreman and gunman that held it together -- but Ballard decides that the ranch is worth saving, even though the only help he really has is one top hand (Chill Wills, in a beautifully restrained performance) and a couple of young brothers (Al Caudebec, Roydon Clark) picked up on the trail. He figures it's worth saving for what it is, and also for Evarts' daughter, Celia (Ella Raines), who is engaged to marry neighboring rancher Sam Danfelser (Forrest Tucker). Ballard and Sam were once friends, but as the foreman discovers, there's been bad blood brewing on the other side of the friendship for a long time, mostly out of Sam's jealousy -- not only is Ballard a better rider and a better gun, but he's a better man than he is, and he can't abide the fact that Celia knows this deep in her heart, even though she and Sam are engaged. Then there's Bide Marriner (Brian Donlevy), a local "operator" who'd love to get a range war started and grab up some land and cattle, and immediately uses friends and intermediaries, plus a few hired guns, to start spreading the word, convincing the neighboring ranchers that Hatcher land is free and open. And then there's Lottie Priest, whom Ballard figured to marry soon -- is she more interested in what her greedy father can make from the breakup of Hatcher? Caught in the middle of it all is the county sheriff, Joe Kneen (J. Carrol Naish), who'd like to stay civil with all of those involved but soon finds out that he's going to have to choose sides, and that he's too good a man for that to be the "easy" choice. There's a lot of back-shooting in Ride the Man Down, as well as some brilliantly and cleverly designed action sequences, and a level of duplicity in the characters that makes this picture play at time almost more like a film noir of the period. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide