Stirling Silliphant Movies
American screenwriter and producer Stirling Silliphant is best remembered for his Oscar-winning screenplay for In the Heat of the Night (1967), but during his career, he wrote or helped write over 200 scripts for films and even more television scripts. Other notable Silliphant scripts include Village of the Damned (1962), The Poseidan Adventure (1972), and The Towering Inferno (1974). In 1968, his script for Charly, the film adaptation for the play Flowers for Algernon, helped win Cliff Robertson his Best Actor Oscar. The Detroit native graduated from the University of California and in 1938 became a publicist for Disney and then moved to Twentieth Century Fox to become an assistant for president Spyros Skouras. Silliphant was in the military during WWII and afterward worked in a New York division of Fox. He did not return to Hollywood until the early '50s, after his first novel, Maracaibo, had become a best-seller. Silliphant performed his first duties as a producer for Universal's The Joe Louis Story. Frustrated by hold-ups on the script, Silliphant swore he could do better and decided that he too would become a scriptwriter. He started out in television writing scripts for series ranging from Route 66 to Alcoa Theatre to Perry Mason. He made his film-scriptwriting debut with Five Against the House (1955). Silliphant significantly boosted the career of martial arts master Bruce Lee when he created a large part for him in Marlowe (1969). A serious student of Buddhism, Silliphant and his wife, Tianna (aka Thi Thanh Nga), a Vietnamese director/actress, moved to Bangkok, Thailand, to study their religion. There were also rumors that Silliphant was tired of Hollywood and the trend to value money-making potential over artistry. Silliphant died in Bangkok after a long illness at the age of 78. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide- 1957
After witnessing an automobile accident, Perry (Raymond Burr) and Della (Barbara Hale) see a young Mexican woman fleeing the scene. Perry later discovers that the girl is exotic dancer Cherie Chi-Chi (played by Judy Tyler in one of her last appearances before her death in a real-life car accident). He also finds out that the girl is in big trouble, and the reason is a fellow named John Callender (Hugh Sanders), who is quite dead. Based on a 1947 novel by series creator Erle Stanley Gardner, this was the first Perry Mason episode to be filmed, but not the first shown. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1956
Commercial artist James Vanning (Aldo Ray) and his friend, Dr. Edward Gurston (Frank Albertson), are on a hunting and fishing trip in Wyoming when they stop to help two men whose car has crashed. The pair, John (Brian Keith) and Red (Rudy Bond), turn out to be escaped bank robbers, on the run with 350,000 dollars in stolen cash after a clean getaway, and they don't plan on leaving any witnesses -- Gurston is shot dead by Red, using Vanning's hunting rifle, but Vanning survives by accident, knocked cold but alive. He awakens to discover the stolen money, accidentally left behind, and runs with it from the returning killers -- he gets away but loses the bag in the blizzard that hits. He manages to make it to the nearest town, but not before the doctor's body is found, with a bullet in it from Vanning's rifle. Now the prime suspect in the murder, Vanning takes it on the lam, hiding out for months -- unbeknowst to him, however, he's been under observation for most of that time by Ben Fraser (James Gregory), an investigator from the insurance company whose policy covered the bank that was robbed; and has been found by John and Red -- and all of them think that Vanning can lead them to the missing money. But John and Red are perfectly prepared to torture and even maim Vanning to get the money, and they get their chance when he lets his guard down one night to talk to Marie Gardner (Anne Bancroft), a young model he meets in a bar. He manages to get away from his captors after a fierce struggle and makes his way to her place; after convincing her that it's not the police he's running from (which is not entirely true), they take off together, with Fraser and the two hoods only a half-step behind, headed to Wyoming and the spring thaw so he can hunt for the bag and the missing money and prove his innocence. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Aldo Ray, Brian Keith, (more)
- 1956
Adapted by Stirling Silliphant from his own novel, Huk was filmed on location in the Philippines. George Montgomery heads the cast as a plantation owner who struggles to fend off native insurrectionists (the "Huks" of the title). He is aided in this effort by fellow planter John Baer, whose wife Mona Freeman harbors a secret love for Montgomery. The thrill-packed conclusion finds Montgomery and Baer working shoulder to shoulder to save a boatland of women and children from the Huk guerillas. Ramio Barri portrays the Huk leader as a villain pure and simple, making it easy for the audience to sort out the good and bad guys in this somewhat jingoistic endeavor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Montgomery, Mona Freeman, (more)
- 1956
Awakening in a strange bed and suffering from a terrible headache -- not to mention the mysterious bruises all over her body -- alcoholic Karen Stewart (Phyllis Thaxter) tries to piece together the events leading up to her present condition. All she can recall at first is her most recent promise to her boyfriend Jeff (Warren Stevens) that she will stop drinking, and stop drinking for good. But Jeff had heard that song many times before, and he was in no mood to put up with her subsequent drunken binge. From this point forward, Karen's mind is a blank...but the blank will soon be filled in a horrific fashion. In light of the serious nature of the story, host Alfred Hitchcock foregoes his usual humorous epilogue. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1956
Corey Allen, who'd played James Dean's ill-fated "chickie run" opponent in the 1955 feature Rebel without a Cause (and who later became a prolific TV director), is the guest star in this episode. Allen plays Gil Dalliford, who deeply resents the fact that his widowed father Jonathan (Douglas Kennedy) has married the much-younger Rosina (Georgann Johnson). When Jonathan dies, Gil accuses Rosina of poisoning him. But the guilt lies elsewhere -- not only outwardly, but within the conscience of the actual culprit. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1955
In this film noir, five college students laughingly devise a perfect plan for robbing a casino in Reno. At first they do it just to pass the time, but one of them is deeply in debt and becoming increasingly distraught about it. He successfully cajoles his peers into carrying through with their plans. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Guy Madison, Kim Novak, (more)
Coley Wallace plays the title role in The Joe Louis Story. Told in flashback, the film recounts the pugilistic career of "the Brown Bomber" from the early 1930s to his misguided comeback attempt opposite Rocky Marciano in 1951. The film's high point is Louis' defeat of Germany's Max Schmeling; its low point (dramatically, not quality-wise) is the breakup of Louis's marriage. Evidently for legal reasons, most of the character names in the film are fictional. Many of the fight scenes are culled from footage of the real Louis in action. Though the "race" angle in The Joe Louis Story is downplayed, Louis is treated on an equal par with the white characters, which resulted in the film being banned in certain Southern regions back in 1953. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Coley Wallace, Paul Stewart, (more)
