James AndersonFilmography

The Ballad of Cable Hogue

Actors: Jason Robards, Jr., Stella Stevens, David Warner, Strother Martin, Slim Pickens

Synopsis: After the intense bloodshed of The Wild Bunch (1969), this comic western fable took the opposite approach to director Sam Peckinpah's continuing examination of the end of the West. Left for dead by a couple of lizard-slaughtering desperados in the middle of the desert, prospector Cable Hogue (Jason Robards Read More

Take the Money and Run

Actors: Woody Allen, Janet Margolin, Marcel Hillaire, Jacquelyn Hyde, Lonny Chapman

Synopsis: When Woody Allen's fans refer to his "earlier, funnier" pictures, they often cite his directorial debut as a shining example. Co-written by Allen and Mickey Rose, this side-splitting takeoff of crime documentaries stars Allen as Virgil Starkwell, a sweetly inept career criminal. The film's most Read More

Branded: Nice Day for a Hanging

Synopsis: Jason (Chuck Connors) rides into a small town to visit Frank Allison (John Anderson), who once saved his life. Unfortunately, the reunion is neither happy nor lengthy: Allison is scheduled to be hanged the next day. It now falls to Jason to prevent Allison's embittered son Lon (Beau Bridges) from Read More

Branded: Now Join the Human Race

Synopsis: Burt Reynolds appears in this episode as Red Hand, a rebellious young Apache chief who has jumped the reservation with his family. Jason McCord (Chuck Connors) hopes to avert an all-out war with the Indians by negotiating the peaceful surrender of Red Hand, but his efforts may be thwarted by the Read More

The Brig

Actors: Warren Finnerty, Henry Howard, Tom Lillard, James Tiroff

Synopsis: The Brig is a literal filmization of the 1964 Living Theater presentation written by Ken Brown. The play is set in a Marine Corps prison, with tense facial expressions and sudden outbursts of brutality supplanting dialogue for most part. Ken Brown traces the degeneration of one prisoner (Warren Finnerty Read More

Bonanza: Little Man--Ten Feet Tall

Actors: Lorne Greene, Pernell Roberts, Michael Landon, Dan Blocker, Ross Martin

Synopsis: Written by Eric Norden and Frank Arno, "Little Man-Ten Feet Tall" focuses on the relationship between Ponderosa ranchhand Nick Biancci (Ross Martin) and Nick's impressionable young son Mario (Michael Davis. Though Mario is prepared to fulfill Nick's dreams by becoming a concert guitarist, he Read More

The Alfred Hitchcock Hour: Last Seen Wearing Blue Jeans

Actors: Michael Wilding, Sr., Anna Lee, Katherine Crawford, Randy Boone, James Anderson

Synopsis: While on a driving tour of America with her parents (Michael Wilding, Anna Lee), young English girl Loren Saunders (Katherine Crawford) heads to her folks' rented station wagon to take a nap. Unfortunately, she gets into the wrong car, and awakens somewhere in Mexico -- where she witnesses a Read More

Pressure Point

Actors: Sidney Poitier, Bobby Darin, Peter Falk, Carl Benton Reid, Mary Munday

Synopsis: Unable to get through to a particularly hostile patient, psychiatrist Peter Falk goes to gray-haired senior shrink Sidney Poitier for advice. This prompts Poitier to recall his experiences during World War II. While working on behalf of the government, Poitier was assigned the case of psycho Nazi Read More

To Kill a Mockingbird

Actors: Gregory Peck, Mary Badham, Philip Alford, Robert Duvall, Frank Overton, Brock Peters

Synopsis: Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning autobiographical novel was translated to film in 1962 by Horton Foote and the producer/director team of Robert Mulligan and Alan J. Pakula. Set a small Alabama town in the 1930s, the story focuses on scrupulously honest, highly respected lawyer Atticus Finch Read More

Have Gun, Will Travel: The Last Judgment

Synopsis: Riding into a dusty Arkansas town, Paladin is greeted with the spectacle of a man chained in the street. The hapless prisoner turns out to be Dr. Simeon Loving (Donald Randolph), accused of murder by self-appointed "hanging judge" Elroy Greenleaf (Harold J. Stone). At the risk of his own neck Read More

Maverick: Maverick at Law

Synopsis: Riding out of a small town, Bart (Jack Kelly) is surprised to find that his saddle bag is bulging. And no wonder: the bag is stuffed with money stolen from the town's bank. Accused of being a thief, Bart is determined to prove that the real culprit is banker Cyrus Murdock (Tol Avery)--but first Read More

The Connection

Actors: Warren Finnerty, Garry Goodrow, Carl Lee, William Redfield

Synopsis: Experimental director Shirley Clarke's first feature film is a no-compromise look at the dead-end world of drug addiction in Manhattan. Awaiting their next "connection", eight dopers sit in a bleak New York loft. The addicts agree to allow filmmaker William Redfield to shoot a documentary of their Read More

The Swamp Fox: Tory Vengeance

Synopsis: In the third episode of Walt Disney's eight-part miniseries The Swamp Fox, Revolutionary War hero Francis Marion (Leslie Nielsen) must pretend to despise his sweetheart, Mary Videaux (Barbara Eiler), lest anyone suspects Mary is one of Francis' most valuable allies against the Redcoats. Despite Read More

The Swamp Fox: Day of Reckoning

Synopsis: In the fourth episode of Walt Disney's eight-part miniseries The Swamp Fox, Continental Army guerilla leader Francis Marion (Leslie Nielsen) feels responsible when his nephew Gabe is killed by the Tories. Letting revenge outweigh his duty to his men, Marion personally sets out to kill Gabe's Read More

The Untouchables: The White Slavers

Synopsis: Elliot Ness (Robert Stack) breathing down his neck, Mig Torrance (Mike Kellin), head of With a large and thriving prostitution racket, moves his base of operations south of the Mexican border. Though Mig refuses to dirty his hands with firearms, he has no qualms about dispatching his minions to Read More

Perry Mason: The Case of the Ill-Fated Faker

Synopsis: Feeling neglected by her rich husband Carl (Howard Petrie), Alice Gorman (June Dayton) is attracted to Carl's no-good, leeching nephew Jim Ferris (William Campbell). What follows is a treacherous morass of greed, grand robbery ($80,000 worth) and murder, with innocent secretary Betty Wilkins (Sue Read More

Have Gun, Will Travel: The Sanctuary

Synopsis: En route to Monterey, Paladin (Richard Boone) is detained by a group of men who let him pass only when satisfied that he has never heard of someone named Vernon Good. Upon arrival, Paladin is met by an ill-tempered priest (Albert Salmi)--and by Vernon Good (John Mauldin), who has taken refuge in Read More

Perry Mason: The Case of the Pint-Sized Client

Synopsis: The Hargrove Finance Company has been robbed and Frank Anderson (James Anderson) lies dead. Identified by witnesses as one of the robbers, old Pop Renzi (Eduardo Ciannelli) is accused of murder. At the behest of Renzi's little grandson Nicky (Bobby Clark), Perry (Raymond Burr) agrees to handle Read More

I Married a Monster from Outer Space

Actors: Tom Tryon, Gloria Talbott, Ken Lynch, Peter Baldwin, John Eldredge, Robert Ivers, Alan Dexter, Chuck Wassil

Synopsis: It has now become a film-review clich to preface a write-up for I Married a Monster From Outer Space with the cautionary "Don't be misled by the title." The fact remains, however, that this one of the better and more intelligent horror outings of the late 1950s. The "I" of the title is Marge Read More

Maverick: Prey of the Cat

Synopsis: After suffering a broken leg, Bart (Jack Kelly) convalesces at the ranch owned by Pete Stillman (Wayne Morris) and his much-younger wife Kitty (Patricia Barry). Fascinated by Bart, Kitty tries to get him mixed up in a scheme to murder her husband. At the same time, Raquel Morales (Yvette Duguay) Read More

The Thing That Couldn't Die

Actors: William Reynolds, Andra Martin, Jeffrey Stone, Carolyn Kearney, Peggy Converse

Synopsis: A young woman plays with a divining rod and ends up finding much more than water in this horror movie. Instead of the desired liquid, the woman finds a 400-year-old human head, and it is still alive. The horrific creature, seeing that the woman is properly innocent, hypnotizes her into looking for Read More

Perry Mason: The Case of the Vagabond Vixen

Synopsis: Movie producer John Addison (Robert Ellenstein) ends up in deep trouble when he picks up an attractive female hitchhiker (Carol Leigh), who proceeds to shake him down for money. Addison turns to Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) for help when he is accused of murdering Edgar Ferrell (Paul Cavanaugh)--and Read More

Maverick: The Long Hunt

Synopsis: After a dying outlaw confesses to a crime for which Jedd Ferris (Richard Crane) has been sentenced to jail, Bret (James Garner) sets upon the task of securing Jedd's release. Trouble is, Jedd's wife Martha (Joan Vohs) is coveted by a tough customer named Ben Maxwell (Richard Webb), who will stop Read More

The Big Land

Actors: Alan Ladd, Virginia Mayo, Edmond O'Brien, Anthony Caruso, Julie Bishop

Synopsis: Produced by Alan Ladd's own Jaguar company, The Big Land stars Ladd as Texas cattleman Morgan. As a means to expedite shipment of his stock to Missouri, Morgan convinces several Kansas farmers to build a small town as a railroad link between the Rio Grande and Kansas City. He is opposed in this by Read More

The Rawhide Years

Actors: Tony Curtis, Colleen Miller, Arthur Kennedy

Synopsis: In this western, an adventurous gambler goes on the lam when he is falsely accused of a riverboat killing. He hides out for three years before returning to prove his innocence, and to find the girl he loves. Unfortunately, the girl is involved with a gambler, the ringleader of the gang responsible Read More

Running Target

Actors: Doris Dowling, Arthur Franz, Richard Reeves, James Parnell

Synopsis: Filmed on location in the Colorado Rockies, Running Target, per its title, is a feature-length chase. When a group of convicts break out of jail, sheriff Arthur Franz vows to bring the fugitives in without gunfire or bloodshed. Unfortunately, some of the members of Franz' posse don't see things Read More

Friendly Persuasion

Actors: Gary Cooper, Dorothy McGuire, Anthony Perkins, Marjorie Main, Robert Middleton, Richard Eyer

Synopsis: Adapted from the best-selling novel by Jessamyn West, Friendly Persuasion is set in Southern Indiana in the early days of the Civil War. Gary Cooper plays Jess Birdwell, patriarch of a Quaker family which does not believe in warfare. Birdwell's son Josh (Anthony Perkins) wishes to adhere to his Read More

Fury at Gunsight Pass

Actors: David Brian, Neville Brand, Richard Long, Lisa Davis, Katherine Warren

Synopsis: Fury at Gunsight Pass is a brief, to-the-point "budget" western, well cast and excitingly staged. David Brian stars as bank robber Whitey Turner, whose outlaw gang takes over a small town. Beating gang leader Dirk Hogan (Neville Brand) to the punch by robbing the town bank ahead of schedule Read More

Seven Angry Men

Actors: Raymond Massey, Debra Paget, Dennis Weaver, Jeffrey Hunter, Larry Pennell, Leo Gordon

Synopsis: In Seven Angry Men, Raymond Massey stars as controversial 19th-century abolitionist John Brown, a role he'd previously essayed in 1940's Santa Fe Trail. Without glossing over Brown's murderous fanaticism and cold-bloodedness, the film manages to invoke a degree of sympathy for the man, whose Read More

The Marauders

Actors: Dan Duryea, Keenan Wynn, Jeff Richards, Jarma Lewis, John Hudson

Synopsis: During her brief stay at MGM, starlet Jarma Lewis received starring roles in two programmers. One of these was The Marauders, in which she appeared with Dan Duryea, Keenan Wynn and Jeff Richards. The bulk of the film's drama is handled by Richards, cast as a homesteader who refuses to move despite Read More

Gunsmoke: Magnus

Synopsis: Chester (Dennis Weaver) is appalled when his "untamed" hillbilly brother Magnus (played by master dialectician Robert Easton) shows up in Dodge at Christmastime. Though treated like dirt by Chester and shunned by practically everyone else, Magnus not only proves to be a better and wiser man than Read More

An Annapolis Story

Actors: John Derek, Diana Lynn, Kevin McCarthy, Alvy Moore, Patrick Conway

Synopsis: The faces are new and the settings up-to-date, but otherwise An Annapolis Story is the tried-and-true "two guys and one girl" formula. Filmed on location at the titular Maryland naval academy, the story centers upon two sibling cadets, Tony (John Derek) and Jim (Kevin McCarthy). The boys battle Read More

At Gunpoint

Actors: Fred MacMurray, Dorothy Malone, Walter Brennan, Tommy Rettig, Skip Homeier

Synopsis: One of the best of the High Noon derivations, At Gunpoint is the story of reluctant hero Fred MacMurray. When a band of gunmen invade a small frontier town, storekeeper MacMurray fires off a lucky shot and kills the leader. Hailed as a hero, MacMurray realizes deep down that he's a coward. When Read More

The Violent Men

Actors: Glenn Ford, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson, Dianne Foster, Brian Keith

Synopsis: Rudolphe Maté directs the western The Violent Men, based on the novel Rough Company by Donald Hamilton. Edward G. Robinson plays Lee Wilkison, the bad-guy owner of Anchor Ranch with a plan to buy out all the smaller ranches to gain control of the valley. Barbara Stanwyck plays his wife Martha, who Read More

Dragnet: The Big Hit-Run Killer

Synopsis: Friday (Jack Webb) and Smith (Ben Alexander) swing into action to find the hit-and-run driver who killed an old woman and her grandson. The owner of the bakery truck driven in the accident swears that he is innocent, and that he lent the vehicle to a casual acquaintance named Paul. The detectives Read More

Dragnet: The Big Chance

Synopsis: Highway patrolman Eugene Brewer disappears without a trace, leaving his car unattended with the motor running. Friday (Jack Webb) and Smith (Ben Alexander) set up a roadblock in hopes of finding the driver of the stolen car reported in the vicinity of Brewer's last know whereabouts. Things take a Read More

Dragnet

Actors: Jack Webb, Ben Alexander, Richard Boone, Ann Robinson, Stacy Harris

Synopsis: At the height of the popularity of his Dragnet TV series, producer/director/star Jack Webb struck a deal with Warner Bros. to direct several feature films--the first of which, but of course, was 1954's Dragnet. This time around, the "true story" in which "only the names are changed to protect the Read More

Riot in Cell Block 11

Actors: Neville Brand, Emile G. Meyer, Frank Faylen, Leo Gordon, Robert Osterloh

Synopsis: The best film of Don Siegel's career to date, this surprisingly intelligent B-picture describes the dramatic arc of an organized rebellion at Folsom prison. The inmates, who are sick of living conditions which include rundown cells, brutal guards, dreadful food, and the presence of the seriously Read More

Drums Across the River

Actors: Audie Murphy, Walter Brennan, Lyle Bettger, Lisa Gaye, Hugh O'Brian

Synopsis: Audie Murphy is at his taciturn best in the Universal western Drums Along the River. Murphy is cast as Gary Brannon, a peaceful homesteader living a quiet existence with his father Sam (Walter Brennan). No-account Frank Walker (Lyle Bettger), hoping to open up the Ute Indian territory for Read More

Dragnet: The Big Trunk

Synopsis: The scene is a dingy rooming house, where the body of a former vaudeville actress is found tied to a chair. The woman has been beaten to death, and Friday (ack Webb) and Smith (Ben Alexander) deduce that her killer wanted to find out what she kept in the huge trunk in the middle of her room. In an Read More

The Pushover

Actors: Fred MacMurray, Kim Novak, Philip Carey, Dorothy Malone, E.G. Marshall

Synopsis: Two bank robbers get away with 250,000 dollars in unmarked, unrecorded bills, murdering a guard in the process. The police know the leader was Harry Wheeler (Paul E. Richards) and turn their attention to his girlfriend, Leona McLane (Kim Novak), detective Paul Sheridan (Fred MacMurray) arranging Read More

The Great Jesse James Raid

Actors: Willard Parker, Barbara Payton, Tom Neal, Wallace Ford, James Anderson

Synopsis: Within its own modest limits, The Great Jesse James Raid is a well-crafted western. Willard Parker plays Jesse James, who when the film opens is seen comfortably settled into respectable retirement. At the instigation of the unscrupulous Bob Ford (Jim Bannon), Jesse leaves hearth and home behind Read More

China Venture

Actors: Edmond O'Brien, Barry Sullivan, Jocelyn Brando, Leo Gordon, Richard Loo

Synopsis: In late 1944, an American guerilla unit led by Capt. Matt Reardon (Edmond O'Brien) learns that a Japanese plane carrying Admiral Amara (Philip Ahn) has crashed in China, in warlord-held territory. Reardon and his men are placed under the command of Naval Intelligence officer Commander Bert Read More

Flight to Tangier

Actors: Joan Fontaine, Jack Palance, Corinne Calvet, Robert Douglas, Marcel Dalio

Synopsis: In this suspense drama, a group of strangers becomes acquainted as they wait for a plane to arrive at an airport in Tangier. Among those awaiting the flight are Susan (Joan Fontaine), an American who is dating the pilot; Gil Walker (Jack Palance), an expatriate who received the Congressional Medal Read More

Scotch on the Rocks

Actors: Ronald Squire

Synopsis: A small Scottish island has never paid its mandatory road tax. This brings forth an investigating committee of Parliament members, including the formidable Ronald Squire. The committee heads to the delinquent Hebridean isle, where they succumb to the easygoing charm of the residents. Cowritten by Read More

The Duel at Silver Creek

Actors: Audie Murphy, Faith Domergue, Stephen McNally, Susan Cabot, Gerald Mohr

Synopsis: A group of vicious claim-jumpers is killing the miners in a Western settlement. Their latest victim is Cromwell (Harry Harvey), who is shot to death at his mine just after his son Luke (Audie Murphy) leaves for town. Luke has three passions in life -- poker, guns, and the silver ornamentation he Read More

Ruby Gentry

Actors: Jennifer Jones, Charlton Heston, Karl Malden, Tom Tully, James Anderson, Bernard Phillips

Synopsis: Jennifer Jones offers a virtual reprise of her sultry performance in Duel in the Sun as the titular heroine of Ruby Gentry. Born into a poor-white-trash Southern family, Ruby intends to improve her lot by marrying into wealth. Her casual beau Boake Tackman (Charlton Heston) considers Ruby unfit Read More

The Last Musketeer

Actors: Rex Allen, Slim Pickens, Mary Ellen Kay, James Anderson

Synopsis: Though he doesn't wield a sword nor wear a plumed hat, singing cowboy Rex Allen qualifies as The Last Musketeer in this Republic western. Allen is called upon to stem the underhanded activities of land baron Russ Tasker (James Anderson). It is Tasker's intention to buy up all the local farmland Read More

Five

Actors: William Phipps, Susan Douglas, James Anderson, Charles Lampkin, Earl Lee

Synopsis: One of the most pretentious "apocalypse" films ever made, Five is set in a lavish Frank Lloyd Wright-designed house--owned by Arch Oboler, the film's writer/producer/director. The "five" of the title are the only survivors of a nuclear disaster, all of whom have rather illogically converged in Read More

Along the Great Divide

Actors: Kirk Douglas, Virginia Mayo, John Agar, Walter Brennan, Ray Teal

Synopsis: Raoul Walsh injects his expected artistry in the otherwise journeyman western Along the Great Divide. Feeling responsible for his father's death, marshal Kirk Douglas seeks redemption. He gets his chance when he saves murder suspect Walter Brennan from a lynch mob. The grateful Brennan accompanies Douglas Read More

Hunt the Man Down

Actors: Gig Young, Lynne Roberts, Mary Anderson, Willard Parker, Carla Balenda

Synopsis: Gig Young was just beginning to toughen up his previously lightweight screen image when he starred in Hunt the Man Down. In a tense, tight, 68 minutes, public defender Paul Bennett (Young) dedicates himself to freeing an innocent man who has already spent 12 years in jail. Accused of murder Read More

The Great Sinner

Actors: Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Melvyn Douglas, Walter Huston, Ethel Barrymore

Synopsis: Based loosely on the Dostoyevsky novel, The Gambler stars Gregory Peck as a sensitive 19th-century Russian author. His "great sin" is gambling, which starts when he attempts to rescue aristocratic Ava Gardner from the gaming tables. He succeeds, only to lose himself to gambling fever, which costs Read More

Bride of Vengeance

Actors: Paulette Goddard, John Lund, MacDonald Carey, Albert Dekker, Raymond Burr, John Sutton

Synopsis: After Ray Milland turned down the leading role in Bride of Vengeance, Paramount contractee John Lund stepped into the role of Alfonso D'Este, second husband of the notorious Lucrezia Borgia. The ruthlessly ambitious Lucrezia is played by Paulette Goddard, who seems ill at ease in the role. MacDonald Carey Read More

Sergeant York

Actors: Gary Cooper, Walter Brennan, Joan Leslie, Ward Bond, Margaret Wycherly, Stanley Ridges

Synopsis: When World War I hero Alvin York agreed to sell the movie rights to his life story to Warner Bros., it was on three conditions: (1) That the film contains no phony heroics, (2) that Mrs.York not be played by a Hollywood "glamour girl" and (3) That Gary Cooper portray York on screen. All three Read More

Dive Bomber

Actors: Errol Flynn, Fred MacMurray, Ralph Bellamy, Herbert Anderson

Synopsis: Lieutenant Commander Joe Blake (Fred MacMurray), Lt. Tim Griffin (Regis Toomey), and Lt. Swede Larson (Louis Jean Heydt) are longtime US Navy flying buddies, about to be transferred to different posts when Larson suffers a blackout during high-altitude maneuvers and cracks up. Navy doctor Douglas Read More