Stirling Silliphant Movies

Based on the novel by Rachel Maddux, A Walk in the Spring Rain is a romantic drama directed by Guy Green and adapted to screenplay by Sterling Siliphant. Taking a break from New York, Libby Meredith (Ingrid Bergman) moves to a small house in backwoods Tennessee with her husband, Roger (Fritz Weaver), who is on sabbatical to write a book. Their neighbor, Will Cade (Anthony Quinn), is very helpful to them and to Libby especially. With her intellectual husband paying her little attention, she comes to like the country life and finds herself attracted to Will's rural sensibilities. Though he is married to Ann (Virginia Gregg), Will and Libby start up a middle-aged affair. Libby's daughter, Ellen (Katharine Crawford), arrives asking for help raising her son while she attends Harvard. Soon enough, Will's son (Tom Fielding) finds out about the affair and assaults Libby, leading to drastic consequences for all. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

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

The winner of the 1967 Oscar for Best Picture (as well as four other Oscars), In the Heat of the Night is set in a small Mississippi town where an unusual murder has been committed. Rod Steiger plays sheriff Bill Gillespie, a good lawman despite his racial prejudices. When Virgil Tibbs (Sidney Poitier), a well-dressed northern African-American, comes to town, Gillespie instinctively puts him under arrest as a murder suspect. Tibbs reveals himself to be a Philadelphia police detective; after he and Gillespie come to a grudging understanding of one another, Tibbs offers to help in Gillespie's investigation. As the case progresses, both Gillespie and Tibbs betray a tendency to jump to culture-dictated conclusions. Still, the case is solved thanks to the informal teamwork of the two law officers. Based on the novel by John Ball, In the Heat of the Night inspired two sequels, both starring Poiter as Virgil Tibbs. In 1987, a TV series version of In the Heat of the Night appeared, with Carroll O'Connor as Gillespie and Howard Rollins as Tibbs. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Something is seriously amiss in the tiny British village of Midwich. At 11 a.m. one morning, every village resident suddenly falls asleep -- and then, just as suddenly, everyone wakes up, completely unaffected by the phenomenon. Well, not completely: virtually every woman of childbearing years has become pregnant. All the babies are born on the same night, at precisely the same moment. All look the same, weigh the same, and even have the same curious cross-hatched hair and underdeveloped fingernails. Four years later, the children have all prematurely reached the age of nine or so -- and all behave in a weird, conspiratorial manner, comporting themselves more like adults than kids. Resident scientist George Sanders, one of the fathers, surmises that the bizarre manner of the children -- from their zombie-like movements to their cold, staring eyes -- is the result of radioactivity, possibly extraterrestrial in nature. One thing is certain: the children possess powers far beyond those of ordinary mortals. And they must be stopped. One of the most influential science fiction films of the 1960s, Village of the Damned was based on the equally eerie John Wyndham novel The Midwich Cuckoos. The more explicit 1995 remake was widely panned in comparison. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This poignant playlet is based on a story by A.E.W. Mason, of The Four Feathers fame. After the death of her husband in a freak mountain accident in Switzerland, Stella Ballister (Patricia Owens) solemnly vows to remain faithful to her spouse's memory. Twenty years pass, and throughout all that time Stella refuses to marry, or even to fall in love again. Only when her husband's body turns up perfectly preserved in a glacier does Stella realize that her loyalty was all for naught. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This biographical drama, chronicles the patriotic exploits of World War II hero Colonel Francis C. Grevemberg, who fought a tough battle against crime and corruption in his home state, Louisiana. He got his chance to serve the state when he was appointed the superintendent of state police by the new governor. Prior to his appointment, Louisiana had been notorious for it's graft, crooked leadership, and criminal underpinnings. Upon accepting his position, Grevemberg vowed to eradicate it from the state governments. It was not an easy task as he met with almost constant opposition from all sides. He and his staff did succeed and Louisiana was a cleaner state. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

After several years' separation from her husband, Laura Bowley (Jessica Tandy) leaves London and heads for a reunion with Mr. Bowley (Murray Matheson) in Hong Kong. Upon her arrival, Laura is met by a chauffeur driving a black sedan. When Laura expresses a preference for a yellow sedan, she is surprised to learn that the car had previously been yellow before it was painted black. Nor is this only curious happenstance encountered by Laura en route to her husband: the sedan seems to be haunted, with an eerie female voice telling Laura about a torrid romance. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A steamship docks in San Francisco, and as one of the passengers, Philip Dressler (Raymond Bailey), is waiting for a cab after clearing customs, a baggage handler suddenly grabs one of his cases and throws it into a taxi, which takes off. In the ensuing getaway, a police officer is killed, but not before he gets off a shot that takes the fleeing cab driver's life. What Lieutenant Ben Guthrie (Warner Anderson) and Inspector Al Quine (Emile G. Meyer) can't figure out is why two men are suddenly dead within a matter of seconds, all for a seemingly inexplicable baggage snatch. The truth begins to come out when an examination reveals that a small ornamental statue in Dressler's case is loaded with half a million dollars in pure heroin. Then the bodies start turning up -- beginning with a baggage handler at the docks. Guthrie and Quine uncover a plan by a drug syndicate to use innocent, unsuspecting tourists visiting the Far East as unknowing drug couriers -- and now that the original method of retrieval at the docks has unraveled, thanks to the wheelman being an addict who got himself killed, another method is improvised.

Enter a pair of hitmen from out of town, Dancer (Eli Wallach), a soft-spoken psychopath with a perfect memory and not a trace of conscience, and his philosophical mentor and "handler," Julian (Robert Keith). Taken around San Francisco by their mob-employed driver, Sandy McLain (Richard Jaeckel), a juicehead who's not quite as good a wheelman as he thinks he is, the hitmen start collecting the latest shipment of heroin from three new arrivals: a ship's crew member who knows too much for his own good, a wealthy husband and wife, and a woman and her young daughter. They calmly go about their business, Dancer and his silenced pistol taking care of any "problems" while Julian runs interference and discusses issues of grammar and speech with him, and adds to his collection of "last words" from Dancer's victims -- until the last shipment turns up missing. It seems the little girl (Cheryl Callaway) found the bag of white powder hidden on the doll her mother bought her, and used it to powder the doll's face....Now Dancer and Julian have to disrupt the planned drop to "The Man" (Vaughan Taylor) to explain the short count, and to do that they have to keep the little girl and her mother (Mary Laroche) alive, at least long enough to tell their story. Meanwhile, Guthrie and Quine keep getting closer, following the trail of bodies and putting together a description of the two killers. But can they find them before the kidnapped mother and daughter join the other victims? ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

"There are eight million stories in The Naked City...This has been one of them." These words were intoned by producer Mark Hellinger at the conclusion of The Naked City, a 1947 detective film lensed in its entirety in New York City (quite an innovation in those Hollywood-dominated years). The same words were heard as the coda in each episode of the TV series Naked City, which like its movie predecessor was entirely shot in the Big Apple. Technically, there were two TV series bearing the title Naked City. The first, which aired on ABC from September 30, 1958 through September 29, 1959, was a weekly, half-hour endeavor, starring John McIntire as veteran NYPD lieutenant John Muldoon and James Franciscus as his youthful partner, Detective Jim Halloran. While Muldoon spent virtually every hour of his day tracking down the various robbers, muggers and two-bit hoodlums in his jurisdiction, Halloran divided his time between his job and his home life with wife Janet (Suzanne Storrs). In a startling plot development, Muldoon was killed in a car chase on the episode originally telecast March 17, 1959, whereupon another seasoned veteran, Lt. Mike Parker (Horace McMahon) took over as Halloran's partner. Also seen during Naked City's initial run was Harry Bellaver as patrolman Frank Arcaro. After a year-long hiatus, Naked City returned to the ABC schedule on October 12, 1960, this time as an hour-long series with several new cast members. Horace McMahon was back as Lt. Parker, as was Harry Bellaver as Frank Arcaro, who in the interim had been promoted to sergeant. New to the series was Paul Burke in the "young partner" slot as Detective Adam Flint, while Nancy Malone was seen as Flint's loyal, ever-patient girlfriend, Libby. Both incarnations of Naked City were outfitted with bluesy, evocative theme songs, with George Duning composing the theme of the 1958 version and Billy May and Milton Raskin handling the 1960 theme. And both were overflowing with familiar faces in their supporting casts, with such actors as Sandy Dennis, Dustin Hoffman, and Jon Voight making their earliest filmed TV appearances. The hour-long version of Naked City ended its ABC run on September 11, 1963. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, this delightfully macabre episode stars Vincent Price as Charles Courtney, a brilliant and pompous detective who takes pride in the fact that he has never made a wrong decision in his career. Courtney has celebrated this winning streak with a well-stocked trophy room, containing a blank space reserved for "The Perfect Crime" -- just in case a crime comes along that he is unable to solve. Unfortunately, attorney John Gregory (James Gregory) shows up one day with irrefutable evidence that Courtney has condemned an innocent man to death. After absorbing this shock, Courtney recovers sufficiently to create an unusual monument for his trophy room -- with the "help" of the hapless Mr. Gregory. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Herbert Marshall, who'd previously starred in Alfred Hitchcock's theatrical features Murder and Foreign Correspondent, is here cast as Harley Condon, an esteemed judge who is saddled with a faithless wife named Gracie (Jarma Lewis). To prove to Gracie that her current lover Wallace Donaldson (Robert Horton) is unworthy of her, Judge Condon concocts a little scheme, involving a supposedly poisoned bottle of wine. Needless to say, the scheme backfires -- on both husband and lover. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide