John BealFilmography

The Kid Who Loved Christmas

Actors: Trent Cameron

Synopsis: This made-for-TV drama--Sammy Davis, Jr.'s last--stars Trent Cameron as a young orphan who must fight against social workers in order to remain with his adoptive father, a widowed jazzman. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide Read More

Amityville 3-D

Actors: Tony Roberts, Tess Harper, Robert Joy, Candy Clark, John Beal

Synopsis: The third installment in the haunted-house saga discards any pretense of being based on actual events in order to provide the requisite cheap thrills sought by audiences during the short-lived 3-D revival of the early '80s. When a skeptical reporter (Tony Roberts) with a penchant for debunking Read More

Jennifer: A Woman's Story

Actors: Elizabeth Montgomery

Synopsis: Apparently weary of playing victim-of-the-week, Elizabeth Montgomery goes the Joan Crawford route playing a fabulously wealthy and stupendously bored matron who is about to be divorced by her wealthy husband. Hubby conveniently expires while dallying with his mistress. The upshot is that Ms. Read More

Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years

Actors: Edward Herrmann, Jane Alexander

Synopsis: First aired March 13, 1977, Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years was the brilliant follow-up to the equally praiseworthy 1976 TV movie Eleanor and Franklin: The Early Years. The film is framed in a flashback experienced by first lady Eleanor Roosevelt (Jane Alexander) while accompanying the Read More

The Streets of San Francisco: In Case of Madness

Synopsis: In a rare dramatic appearance, Desi Arnaz Jr. appears as B.J. Palmer, the lead singer of a popular rock group. When the group's avaricious manager David Breen (Conrad Janis) is bludgeoned to death, B.J. is convinced that he himself is the guilty party. After all, the troubled young singer suffers Read More

The Legend of Lizzie Borden

Actors: Elizabeth Montgomery

Synopsis: "Lizzie Borden took an axe/And gave her mother forty whacks/When she saw what she had done/She gave her father forty-one". New England spinster Lizzie Borden was acquitted of the charge of murdering her father and stepmother in 1892, but this made-for-TV movie, like most recreations of the murders Read More

Kojak: Down a Long and Lonely River

Synopsis: As a favor to pretty young sociologist Lindsay Walker (Sian Barbara Allen), Kojak (Telly Savalas) embarks on a search for her boyfriend, paroled convict Lou Giordino (played by a pre-Starsky and Hutch {$Paul Michael Glaser). But Lou has no intention of being located by Kojak or any other Read More

The Waltons: The Visitor

Synopsis: Veteran Hollywood leading man John Beal guest stars as Mason Beardley, an old friend of Grandpa Walton (Will Geer). When Grandpa's family offers to fix up Mason's house, he is delighted, jubilantly declaring that it will be perfect for his wife, whom he expects to show up on the Mountain at any Read More

The House That Cried Murder

Actors: Iva Jean Saraceni, Robin Strasser, John Beal, Arthur Roberts

Synopsis: This Canadian thriller was also released as The House That Cried Murder. Neurotic newlywed Robin Strasser finds her husband Arthur Roberts in bed with his old flame Iva Jean Saraceni. Robin doesn't get mad-she gets even. Using funds supplied by her wealthy daddy John Beal, the scorned bride turns Read More

Dark Shadows: Episode 1197

Synopsis: Quentin (David Selby) and Desmond (John Karlen) resign themselves to their fate as they approach the headsman's axe. Coming to the rescue is Valerie, aka Angelique (Lara Parker). Carrying the head of Judah Zachary, Angelique is able to convince the authorities that Gerard (James Storm) and not Read More

Dark Shadows: Episode 1181

Synopsis: Lamar (Jerry Lacy) decides to testify against Quentin (David Selby) despite Barnabas' (Jonathan Frid) threat, using the story of Quentin's letter to the deceased Joanna Mills (Lee Beery) as proof of Quentin's witchcraft. His testimony is instantly discredited when Joanna herself appears in court. Read More

Dark Shadows: Episode 1185

Synopsis: On the strength of Grimes' deathbed accusation, Quentin (David Selby) is found guilty of witchcraft and sentenced to be beheaded in the public square. As a result, things don't look too good for Quentin's accused co-conspirator, Desmond, and, it also appears that Gerard's (James Storm) diabolical Read More

Dark Shadows: Episode 1186

Synopsis: Quentin (David Selby) resigns himself to his upcoming execution. Upon finding out that his own wife, Edith (Terry Crawford), is mixed up with the sinister machinations of Gerard (James Storm), Gabriel (Christopher Pennock) kills Edith. Daphne (Kate Jackson) gets a glimpse of a strange new world Read More

Dark Shadows: Episode 1178

Synopsis: Judge Vail (John Beal) gives Quentin (David Selby) a scant three hours to find a new lawyer to replace Desmond (John Karlen), who is now also under arrest for witchcraft. Lamar Trask's smugness turns into horror when he sees Quentin's new defense counsel: Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid), the same Read More

Dark Shadows: Episode 1179

Synopsis: Frightened by the reappearance of Barnabas (Jonathan Frid), Lamar (Jerry Lacy) decides not to testify against Quentin in the latter's witchcraft trial. During a recess, Barnabas calmly tells Lamar that he will kill him, adding to Lamar's terror by not informing him when, or where, he is slated to Read More

Dark Shadows: Episode 1165

Synopsis: Samantha (Virginia Vestoff) testifies against Quentin (David Selby) in his witchcraft trial. Even worse, Charles Dawson (Humbert Allen Astredo), the cohort of Gerard Stiles -- who, possessed by Judah Zachary, was responsible for framing Quentin -- is named as special prosecutor. This episode Read More

Dark Shadows: Episode 1166

Synopsis: Still testifying against Quentin (David Selby) in his witchcraft trial, Samantha (Virginia Vestoff) proclaims that Quentin and Daphne (Kate Jackson) are lovers. Fired as the Collinwood governess, Daphne is comforted by a dream in which she is happily married to Gerard Stiles -- little knowing that Read More

Dark Shadows: Episode 1174

Synopsis: Samantha (Virginia Vestoff) becomes convinced that Joanna's ghost intends to do her harm. Leticia (Nancy Barrett) is forced to reveal the connection between Desmond (John Karlen) and the head of Judah Zachary, whereupon Desmond, like Quentin (David Selby), is charged with witchcraft and thrown in Read More

One Step Beyond: The Lovers

Synopsis: In this lighthearted episode, timid Viennese postman Josef (Rudolph Anders) is pining over pretty coffee house waitress Elsa (Vanessa Brown), who in turns feels much the same affection towards Josef. Alas, the lovers are repeatedly kept apart, no matter how much they yearn to be together. Is it a Read More

Ten Who Dared

Actors: Brian Keith, John Beal, James Drury, Ben Johnson, R.G. Armstrong

Synopsis: Critics consistently consider this historical drama one of the worst films Disney ever made. It is the true-tale of ten heroes from the Civil War who ride down the raging Colorado in hopes of mapping it. The mission is led by the Major John Wesley Powell who lost an arm during the war. Their Read More

Disneyland: Rapids Ahead and Bear Country

Actors: Brian Keith, John Beal, James Drury, R.G. Armstrong, Ben Johnson

Synopsis: The first half of this Walt Disney Presents episode, "Rapids Ahead," is ostensibly a salute to John Wesley Powell, the first man to explore the Colorado River. The presence of such actors as Brian Keith and John Beal tips us off that this segment is actually a promo for the upcoming Disney Read More

Bonanza: The Philip Diedshiemer Story

Actors: Lorne Greene, Pernell Roberts, Michael Landon, Dan Blocker, John Beal

Synopsis: Engineer Philip Diedshiemer (John Beal) arrives in Virginia City, where, in partnership with Adam Cartwright, he creates a timbering system called "square set," which is designed to make the Deep Silver Mines safe from cave-ins. Trouble ensues when the mine owners refuse to pay Diedshiemer for his Read More

The Sound and the Fury

Actors: Yul Brynner, Joanne Woodward, Margaret Leighton, Stuart Whitman, Ethel Waters

Synopsis: In this filmed adaptation of William Faulkner's seminal work, Yul Brynner stars as Jason Compson, the oldest son of a once-proud Southern family rife with inner turmoil. His promiscuous sister, Caddy (Margaret Leighton), has suddenly rolled back into town with an illegitimate daughter called Read More

That Night!

Actors: John Beal, Augusta Dabney, Beverly Lunsford

Synopsis: That Night! was the film version of a TV drama by Robert Wallace and Burton J. Rowles titled The Long Way Home. John Beal plays a hard-working ad man who suffers a mild heart attack. Despite the admonitions of his doctor, Beal refuses to cut down on his work load, feeling that by doing so he would Read More

The Vampire

Actors: John Beal, Coleen Gray, Kenneth Tobey, Lydia Reed

Synopsis: Small-town doctor Paul Beecher (John Beal) is given some strange pills by a dying elderly researcher. Later, when Paul gets a severe headache, his young daughter accidentally gives him the mystery pills. He's later puzzled by a series of strange deaths in which all the blood was drained from the Read More

Remains to Be Seen

Actors: June Allyson, Van Johnson, Louis Calhern, Angela Lansbury, John Beal

Synopsis: June Allyson plays a band singer working in New York City; Van Johnson is the manager of a fancy apartment house where a murder is committed. The victim is Allyson's wealthy uncle, and since she can't account for her actions at the time of the crime, Our Heroine is the principal suspect. The real Read More

My Six Convicts

Actors: Millard Mitchell, Gilbert Roland, John Beal, Marshall Thompson, Alf Kjellin

Synopsis: Stanley Kramer's production unit at Columbia Pictures was known for its willingness to tackle subject matter that was not necessarily "box office" (much to the dismay, of course, of Columbia head man Harry Cohn!) Adapted by Michael Blankfort from the autobiography by Donald Powell Wilson, My Six Read More

Country Parson

Messenger of Peace

Actors: John Beal, Peggy Stewart, William Bakewell, Paul Guilfoyle, Fred Essler

Synopsis: Originally designed for church showings, Messenger of Peace was blown up from 16mm to 35mm and given a brief theatrical distribution early in 1950. Told in flashback, this is the inspirational story of Pastor Armin Ritter (John Beal), whose faith remains unshakable despite the most extreme forms Read More

Song of Surrender

Actors: Wanda Hendrix, Claude Rains, MacDonald Carey, Andrea King, Henry Hull

Synopsis: Though her acting range was limited, Wanda Hendrix was cute as all get out, and this cuteness is pretty much all that's required from her in Song of Surrender. The film is set in a small town of the early 1900s. Hendrix is cast as Abigail Hunt, the young bride of fiftyish museum curator Elisha Read More

Chicago Deadline

Actors: Alan Ladd, Donna Reed, June Havoc, Irene Hervey, Arthur Kennedy

Synopsis: Tough reporter Ed Adams (Alan Ladd) wants to get the full story behind the apparent suicide of a young woman. It seems that the girl left behind a notebook with a list of seemingly unrelated names. Adams tracks down each one of the persons cited in the notebook, slowly but surely putting the Read More

Alimony

Actors: Martha Vickers, John Beal, Hillary Brooke, Douglas Dumbrille

Synopsis: One thing you can say about Alimony: It tackled a subject that virtually everyone in Hollywood was intimately familiar with. Martha Vickers plays a ruthless young woman who has hit upon a clever (if not original) method of fattening her bank account. She seeks out relationships with wealthy Read More

So Dear to My Heart

Actors: Bobby Driscoll, Beulah Bondi, Burl Ives, Luana Patten, Harry Carey

Synopsis: Like Disney's earlier Song of the South, So Dear to My Heart peppers its live action with animated sequences. In this film, however, it is the "live" story that lingers longest in the memory. Set in 1903, the film takes place on the small Kincaid farm. Twin sheep are born in the barn: one white Read More

Key Witness

Actors: Trudy Marshall, Jimmy Lloyd, Helen Mowery, Wilton Graff

Synopsis: With a little extra effort, Columbia's Key Witness might have been a model B picture. John Beal plays inventor Milton Higby, whose treacherous ex-girlfriend is mysteriously murdered. As the number one suspect, Higby is in the doghouse witht he Law. Fortunately, it seems as though someone witnessed Read More

Edge of Darkness

Actors: Errol Flynn, Ann Sheridan, Walter Huston, Tom Fadden, Judith Anderson, Nancy Coleman, Helmut Dantine

Synopsis: The Norwegian resistance to the Nazi occupation of their country inspired several wartime films from Hollywood, including this Warner Bros. production, filmed in and around Monterey, California. In October 1942, a German observation airplane discovers a seaside village named Trollness where the Read More

Let's Have Fun

Synopsis: A musical star leaves the show and convinces the financial backer to leave also when she finds out that her leading man is married. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Stand by All Networks

Atlantic Convoy

Actors: Bruce Bennett, Virginia Field, John Beal, Clifford Severn, Larry Parks

Synopsis: Released shortly after the similar Columbia wartime mellers Submarine Raider and Parachute Nurse, Atlantic Convoy is set on the coast of Iceland. Civilian weatherman Carl Hansen (John Beal) is suspected of being a Nazi spy after an unexpected enemy attack on an Allied convoy. With the help of Read More

One Thrilling Night

Actors: John Beal, Wanda McKay, Warren Hymer, Barbara Pepper

Synopsis: Among the few wartime comedies that are still genuinely funny today, Monogram's One Thrilling Night (aka Horace Takes Over). stars John Beal and Wanda McKay as a somewhat dimwitted newlywed couple honeymooning in New York. Beal hopes to spend some "quality time" with Wanda before he's to report Read More

Ellery Queen and the Perfect Crime

Actors: Ralph Bellamy, Margaret Lindsay, Charles Grapewin, Spring Byington, H.B. Warner

Synopsis: Ralph Bellamy makes the third of four appearances as "master detective" Ellery Queen in Columbia's Ellery Queen and the Perfect Crime. The principal villain is crooked stockbroker John Mathews (Douglass Dumbrille), whose Wall Street manipulations render Ray Jarden (H. B. Warner) penniless. Read More

The Great Commandment

Actors: John Beal, Maurice Moscovich, Albert Dekker, Marjorie Cooley

Synopsis: Filmed independently in 1939, The Great Commandment finally attained released in 1942 via 20th Century-Fox. Set in 30 AD, the story concerns the burgeoning Christian movement, and its effects on young Judean scholar named Joel (John Beal). A hotheaded reactionary, Joel spearheads an uprising Read More

Doctors Don't Tell

Synopsis: In this medical melodrama, a young MD finds himself in love with a woman who doesn't love him. She is interested in an older, more sophisticated doctor. After she discovers that the older medic has a sleazy side, she decides to go for the younger doctor. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Cat and the Canary

Actors: Bob Hope, Paulette Goddard, John Beal, Douglass Montgomery, Gale Sondergaard

Synopsis: The classic "old dark house" motif is given sterling treatment in this second filmed version of the hit play. Bob Hope's status as a star was assured with his role as Wallie Campbell, the cowardly protector of Joyce Norman (Paulette Goddard), who must spend one night in the eerie mansion of her Read More

I Am the Law

Actors: Edward G. Robinson, Barbara O'Neil, Wendy Barrie, Otto Kruger

Synopsis: I Am the Law is arguably the best of the late-1930s films inspired by the racket-busting career of New York district attorney Thomas E. Dewey. Edward G. Robinson switches to the right side of the law as the Dewey counterpart, here named John Lindsay (!) A feisty, no-nonsense law professor, Lindsay Read More

The Arkansas Traveler

Actors: Fay Bainter, John Beal, Jean Parker, Lyle Talbot

Synopsis: In its never-ending efforts to find a "rustic" screen personality to replace the late Will Rogers, Hollywood turned to popular radio humorist Bob Burns. In Paramount's The Arkansas Traveller, Burns plays the nameless title character, who wanders in out of the nowhere to settle down in a dusty Read More

Port of Seven Seas

Actors: Frank Morgan, Maureen O'Sullivan, John Beal, Jessie Ralph

Synopsis: James Whale directed this screen adaptation of Marcel Pagnol's French classic Fanny. Madelon (Maureen O'Hara) is a lovely young woman who lives in a seaside community, where she has fallen in love with Marius (John Beal), a sailor. Marius is called to duty and sets sail, shortly before Madelon Read More

Double Wedding

Actors: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Florence Rice, John Beal, Jessie Ralph

Synopsis: Richard Thorpe's comedy Double Wedding (1937) marked the seventh screen pairing of William Powell and Myrna Loy, known for their popular appearances together in the Thin Man series. Powell is Charlie Lodge, a bohemian artist who lives in a trailer, camped in an auto parking space in a busy city. Read More

Beg, Borrow or Steal

Actors: Frank Morgan, Florence Rice, John Beal, Janet Beecher, Herman Bing

Synopsis: In this entertaining comedy, an American expatriate lives in Paris and fancies himself a clever con artist. Getting cocky, he invites his wife and daughter to join him. The daughter is about to marry and he promises her an exquisite French chalet. Now he must quickly find one before she arrives Read More

Madame X

Actors: Gladys George, John Beal, Warren William, Reginald Owen, William Henry

Synopsis: Sam Wood directed this fourth version of the Alexandre Bisson weeper, buffed to a high gloss by shimmering M.G.M. production values. Gladys George plays Jacqueline Fleuriot this time around, the wife of a diplomat who has an affair and is compelled to leave her husband and son. After abandoning Read More

Danger Patrol

Actors: Sally Eilers, John Beal, Harry Carey, Frank M. Thomas, Crawford Weaver

Synopsis: Set amidst the tense and suspenseful world of men who transport large amounts of nitroglycerin, used to put out fires in oil fields, this drama centers on the conflict between a young med student, who has become a nitro handler to help pay his way through school, and the old trucker who hauls the Read More

Border Cafe

Actors: Harry Carey, John Beal, Armida, George Irving, Leona Roberts

Synopsis: The cattle rustlers in Border Cafe, a modern-day western from the RKO B-unit, are Eastern gangsters headed by none other than that old reprobate J. Carrol Naish. After having landed in jail for drunken driving for the umpteenth time, young Bostonian Keith Whitney (John Beal callously leaves his Read More

We Who Are About to Die

Actors: Preston S. Foster, Ann Dvorak, John Beal, Ray Mayer, Gordon Jones

Synopsis: Its title notwithstanding, We Who Are About to Die has nothing to do with Roman Gladiators. Rather, the film is based on the true story of San Quentin inmate David Lamson, who spent 13 agonizing months on Death Row before the Supreme Court reversed his conviction. Renamed John (and played by John Beal Read More

The Man Who Found Himself

Actors: John Beal, Joan Fontaine, Philip Huston, Jane Walsh, George Irving

Synopsis: A doctor (John Beal) who loses faith in his skills renounces his profession and hides himself in a variety of jobs. He takes a minor job at an airfield, where he meets nurse Joan Fontaine, who works on a "flying hospital". On board the aircraft, Beal finds he is the only person who can perform a Read More

M'Liss

Actors: Anne Shirley, John Beal, Guy Kibbee, Douglas Dumbrille, Moroni Olsen

Synopsis: Loosely based on a story by frontier writer Bret Harte, this romantic western drama tells the story of an innocent, carefree mountain-raised girl who causes quite a stir every time she comes to town to bring her boozy father home from the bar. One day, the flirtatious gal is kissed by the town Read More

Break of Hearts

Actors: Katharine Hepburn, Charles Boyer, John Beal, Jean Hersholt, Sam Hardy

Synopsis: Katharine Hepburn suffers nobly while her philandering conductor husband Charles Boyer dallies with the likes of Helene Millard in this overheated melodrama directed by Philip Moeller of the renowned Theater Guild. Although receiving plenty of warning, prim lady composer Constance Roberti Read More

Les Miserables

Actors: Fredric March, Charles Laughton, Cedric Hardwicke, Rochelle Hudson, John Beal, Marilyn Knowlden, Frances Drake

Synopsis: Richard Boleslawski directed this lavish adaptation of Victor Hugo's oft-filmed epic novel. Fredric March stars as Jean Valjean, who is hauled into prison for stealing a loaf of bread. After ten years at hard labor, he escapes from the merciless prison but the years have taken their toll and Read More

Laddie

Actors: John Beal, Gloria Stuart, Virginia Weidler, Charlotte Henry, Donald Crisp

Synopsis: Director George Stevens' fourth feature-film effort was a 1935 adaptation of the oft-filmed Gene Stratton Porter yarn Laddie. Set in rural Indiana, the story revolves around the romance between a local farm boy (John Beal) and English-born girl (Gloria Stuart). The lovers are separated during most Read More

The Little Minister

Actors: Katharine Hepburn, John Beal, Alan Hale, Donald Crisp, Lumsden Hare

Synopsis: Based on the novel and play by James M. Barrie, The Little Minister turned out to be Katharine Hepburn's best vehicle since Little Women. John Beal plays the Reverend Gavin, the sobersided new cleric of a tiny Scottish village. Almost against his better judgment, Beal falls in love with Babbie (Hepburn Read More

Hat, Coat and Glove

Actors: Ricardo Cortez, John Beal, Margaret Hamilton

Synopsis: John Barrymore wisely turned down this contrived courtroom melodrama that instead trapped poor Ricardo Cortez. He plays Robert Mitchell, an attorney who runs into his estranged wife Dorothea (Barbara Robbins) and her lover, artist Jerry Hutchins (John Beal), in a department store, the three of Read More

Another Language

Actors: Helen Hayes, Robert Montgomery, John Beal, Henry Travers

Synopsis: Given the usual pedestal upon which mothers were placed by MGM head Louis Mayer, it's all the more amazing that Mayer gave the go-ahead for Another Language. Louise Closser Hale plays a domineering matriarch who controls the lives of her grown, married sons, using a fabricated heart condition to Read More