Marshall ThompsonFilmography

Dallas: The Early Years

Actors: Molly Hagan, Dale Midkiff

Synopsis: Inspired by guess what television series, this made-for-TV movie traces the follies and fortunes of the Ewings and the Barneses all the way back to the 1930s. The familiar Dallas characters are played by unfamiliar (albeit very able) younger players: Miss Ellie, for example, isn't Barbara Bel Geddes Read More

Bog

Actors: Gloria de Haven, Aldo Ray, Marshall Thompson, Leo Gordon, Glen Voros

Synopsis: A cheesy rubber-suit monster flick from Wisconsin -- where they should know a thing or two about cheese. When a lazy local begins fishing with dynamite in scenic Bog Lake, something a bit larger pops to the surface: a green, bug-eyed mutant "were-fish," awakened from decades-long sleep, which Read More

White Dog

Actors: Kristy McNichol, Paul Winfield, Burl Ives, Jameson Parker, Lynne Moody

Synopsis: A little-seen film, suppressed by Paramount studio executives and never released theatrically in the U.S., this drama is a powerful saga about racism. Julie Sawyer (Kristy McNichol) hits a handsome white dog with her car one night and then nurses it back to health. One day, the theretofore Read More

The Formula

Actors: George C. Scott, Marthe Keller, Marlon Brando, John Gielgud, John van Dreelen, Calvin Jung, G.D. Spradlin

Synopsis: With George C. Scott and Marlon Brando heading the cast, The Formula should have been far better than it is. Adapted by Steve Shagan from his own best-selling novel, the film is predicated on the concept that a formula for synthetic fuel had been developed by the Nazis during WW II. In the Read More

Quincy, M.E.: Mode of Death

Synopsis: An evangelist suspected of financial impropriety is found dead in a motel room, apparently from an overdose of drugs and alcohol. Was it an accident, a suicide, or a murder? Quincy (Jack Klugman) is pressured by the authorities to solve the mystery--a task which may or may not be expedited by Dr. Read More

Quincy, M.E.: Dark Angel

Synopsis: Veteran police officer Tommy Bates (Neville Brand) catches Billy Harris (Richard Stanley), a young car thief whose wild behavior indicates that he is high on "angel dust." During the arrest, Harris dies, and his accomplice Steve (Michael Horton) accuses Bates of choking the boy to death. Lt. Read More

Centennial

Actors: William Atherton, Raymond Burr, Richard Chamberlain, Timothy Dalton, Alex Karras, Robert Conrad

Synopsis: The longest (26-1/2 hours), most expensive ($25 million) and most complicated (four directors, five producers, five cinematographers, almost 100 speaking parts, several hundred extras) project made for television up to that time, Centennial was shown in two- and three-hour installments over a Read More

Cruise into Terror

Synopsis: This delightfully bad made-for-TV movie throws together an assortment of television stalwarts and movie has-beens for what is essentially a horror version of The Love Boat. The plot involves a vacation cruise in the Gulf of Mexico, during which some of the passengers find an ancient Egyptian Read More

The Turning Point

Actors: Anne Bancroft, Shirley MacLaine, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Leslie Browne, Tom Skerritt

Synopsis: One of a cycle of '70s post-Women's Liberation "women's pictures," Herbert Ross's drama uses the ballet world to examine the conflict between family and career. Former dance colleagues Deedee (Shirley MacLaine) and Emma (Anne Bancroft) are reunited when Emma's New York ballet company stops in Read More

Ironside: Class of '40

Synopsis: It is hardly a fond reunion when Ironside (Raymond Burr) is summoned to his home town by a letter from his former high school classmate Alice Schmidt (Fay Spain). Upon his arrival, the Chief learns that Alice never wrote the letter--and that her husband John has been murdered. When another member Read More

The Streets of San Francisco: For the Love of God

Synopsis: Stone (Karl Malden)and Keller (Michael Douglas) spring into action when a priest is killed in his Confessional. It turns out that the victim had attended the same seminary as three other priests who were murdered in similar fashion. To root out the killer, Stone goes undercover, donning the collar Read More

George!

Crew: Producer

Synopsis: In this comedy, the quiet life of an airplane pilot living in Switzerland is terribly disrupted when his sister gets married for the fourth time and bequeaths him her 250-pound St. Bernard. The bachelor and the big slobbery dog do not immediately become friends. Later they bond when the St. Read More

The Partridge Family: Anatomy of a Tonsil

Synopsis: Under protest, Danny (Danny Bonaduce) agrees to undergo a tonsillectomy. His worst fears about the operation (conveyed via surrealistic dream sequences) seem to be confirmed when, upon emerging from the ether, Danny has apparently lost his singing voice! Actually, his problems are purely Read More

Ride the Tiger

Synopsis: George Montgomery, several years before chucking acting in favor of woodworking, directs and stars in Ride the Tiger. Montgomery plays a Miami nightclub owner whose partner is murdered. The cops could care less (so it seems), so the owner goes after the murderer himself. The film takes its sweet Read More

Clarence, the Cross-Eyed Lion

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Marshall Thompson, Betsy Drake, Richard Haydn, Cheryl Miller, Alan Caillou, Maurice Marsac

Synopsis: Dr. Marsh Tracy (Marshall Thompson) is an animal behavioral research director who travels to East Africa with his daughter Paula (Cheryl Miller) in this engaging wildlife saga. While Tracy develops a relationship with anthropologist Julie Harper (Betsy Drake), Paula befriends the visually Read More

To the Shores of Hell

Synopsis: The Viet Cong have captured an American doctor to treat their wounded soldiers, but the doctor's U.S. Marine brother, with the help of a few others, plans a rescue mission. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide Read More

Around the World under the Sea

Actors: Lloyd Bridges, Shirley Eaton, Brian Kelly, David McCallum, Keenan Wynn, Marshall Thompson, Gary Merrill

Synopsis: Ivan Tors Productions, the firm responsible for such aquatic TV delights as Sea Hunt and Flipper, was the prime mover behind MGM's Around the World Under the Sea. The official stars include Lloyd Bridges, Shirley Eaton, Brian Kelly, David McCallum, Keenan Wynn, Marshall Thompson, and Gary Merrill. Read More

A Yank in Viet-Nam

Crew: Director

Synopsis: In this Vietnam war drama, a Marine survives a helicopter crash and lands in enemy territory. Fortunately, rebels help guide him through the dense jungles to safety. Along the way, he saves a POW, and ends up falling in love with the man's daughter. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Mighty Jungle

Synopsis: This jungle adventure provides a wonderfully corny look into the mysteries of the Amazon and the African Congo as it chronicles the journeys of two intrepid explorers. There each of them must face assorted dangers including enormous iguanas, diminutive pygmies, voracious crocodiles, and man-eating Read More

No Man Is an Island

Actors: Jeffrey Hunter, Marshall Thompson, Barbara Perez, Ronald Remy

Synopsis: This is a routine docudrama on the life of George R. Tweed, a World War II hero played by Jeffrey Hunter. Tweed was trapped on Guam from the day when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and began their Pacific campaign. Tweed manages to survive detection throughout the long war years, and when the Read More

Flight of the Lost Balloon

Actors: Mala Powers, Marshall Thompson, James Lanphier, Douglas Kennedy

Synopsis: The Woolner Brothers, ever on the cutting edge of cinema with rank imitations of popular hits, strike again with Flight of the Lost Balloon. In response to the upcoming release of Mysterious Island in 1961, the Woolners put together this cheapjack tale which, like Island, is partially set in a Read More

Perry Mason: The Case of the Wayward Wife

Synopsis: Ben Sutton (Richard Shannon) is having a high old time spending the royalties from his best-selling book, dealing with his experiences a Korean POW. In fact, Ben has apparently depleted his savings, else why would he be borrowing so much from the brother of his long-suffering wife Sylvia (Bethel Read More

East of Kilimanjaro

Synopsis: Originally released as La Granda Caccia, East of Kilimanjaro was filmed on location in Africa. Marshall Thompson plays American photojournalist Marsh Conners, assigned to cover a cattle epidemic. Falling in love with research scientist Dr. Marie Avedon (Gaby Andre), Conners attempts to help her Read More

The First Man into Space

Actors: Marshall Thompson, Marla Landi, Bill Edwards, Robert Ayres, Bill Nagy

Synopsis: Filmed not long after the launch of Russia's Sputnik satellite, First Man Into Space benefited from a surface realism made possible by enhanced public knowledge of space-travel jargon and paraphernalia. Dashing astronaut Lt. Dan Prescott (Bill Edwards) disappears from view when his experimental Read More

The Fall of the House of Usher

Synopsis: Fall of the House of Usher, Edgar Allan Poe's macabre tale of family curses, premature burial, and horrible revenge, was adapted for television in 1958. Marshall Thompson plays the tormented Roderick Usher, whose sister has died under mysterious circumstances. Upon the arrival of her fiancee (Tom Read More

Fiend without a Face

Actors: Kynaston Reeves, Marshall Thompson, Terry Kilburn, Michael Balfour, Gil Winfield, Shane Cordell

Synopsis: This sci-fi horror cult classic is based in and around a U.S. long-range radar installation in the Canadian wilderness, where soldiers and civilians alike are being struck dead by an unseen force. At first, the base commander believes these murders may have been the work of spies operating out of Read More

It! The Terror from Beyond Space

Actors: Marshall Thompson, Shawn Smith, Kim Spalding, Ann Doran, Dabbs Greer, Richard Benedict

Synopsis: One of the best of the medium-budgeted science fiction flicks of the 1950s, It! The Terror from Beyond Space is set in "the future" (1973, to be exact). An rescue ship travels out to Mars to retrieve the only survivor of a space probe that has experienced some sort of cataclysm. That survivor Read More

The Secret Man

Synopsis: In this crime drama, a Yankee rocket scientist stationed in Great Britain becomes an undercover investigator when he suspects that his laboratory base has been infiltrated by an enemy spy. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Lure of the Swamp

Synopsis: Based on a novel by Gil Brewer, Lure of the Swamp top-bills Marshall Thompson as a Florida swamp guide. Thompson is hired by mysterious stranger Willard Parker, who intends to a hide a large sum of money somewhere in the deepest recesses of the swamp. It later turns out that Parker is a bank Read More

The Blackwell Story

Synopsis: The Blackwell Story is based on Lloyd C. Douglas' The First Woman Doctor. Joanne Dru stars as Elizabeth Blackwell, who in 1849 became the first woman ever to receive a doctor's degree in the United States. Turned down by every other university, Elizabeth was accepted by New York State's Geneva Read More

Battle Taxi

Actors: Sterling Hayden, Arthur Franz, Marshall Thompson, Leo Needham, Jay Barney

Synopsis: Battle Taxi is set during the height of the Korean War. Sterling Hayden plays an officer of the Helicopter Air Rescue Service, whose job it is to save wounded or stranded soldiers from hostile territory. Arthur Franz costars as a lieutenant assigned to the copter service, who at first resents his Read More

Port of Hell

Actors: Dane Clark, Carole Mathews, Wayne Morris, Marshall Thompson, Marjorie Lord

Synopsis: In this early disaster film, the tough-minded and strict Los Angeles Harbormaster must use his courage and wits when the communists announce they have planted an atomic bomb on a freighter. It will detonate in 12 hours. Now, the harbormaster must not only save the city, he must keep his actions Read More

Crashout

Actors: William Bendix, Arthur Kennedy, Luther Adler, William Talman, Gene Evans

Synopsis: Six convicts plan a prison break and are successful, though their ringleader (William Bendix) is injured in the attempt. He promises to share the fortune in gold he has stowed away if they help him get to a doctor. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide Read More

To Hell and Back

Actors: Audie Murphy, Marshall Thompson, Susan Kohner, Charles Drake, Jack Kelly, Gregg Palmer

Synopsis: The highly variable Audie Murphy delivers his best screen performance as "himself" in Universal's To Hell and Back. Based on the star's autobiography, this is the story of how Murphy became America's most-decorated soldier during WW II. After dwelling a bit on Murphy's hard-scrabble Texas Read More

Cult of the Cobra

Actors: Faith Domergue, Richard Long, Marshall Thompson, Kathleen Hughes, Jack Kelly

Synopsis: Six GIs stationed in Asia secretly photograph the arcane rituals of a group of cobra worshippers. At the climax of the ceremony, the cult members turn themselves into snakes. The high priestess catches the soldiers spying and throws a curse upon them. This off-beat horror film follows what happens Read More

Good Morning, Miss Dove

Actors: Jerry Paris, Jennifer Jones, Robert Stack, Kipp Hamilton, Robert Douglas, Peggy Knudsen, Chuck Connors

Synopsis: This distaff variation of the Goodbye Mr. Chips theme is based on a novel by Frances Gray Patton. While confined to a sickbed, ageing New England schoolteacher Miss Dove (Jennifer Jones) recalls the many students who passed through her classroom. Among her now-grown-up prize pupils are surgeon Tom Read More

The Caddy

Actors: Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Donna Reed, Barbara Bates, Joseph Calleia

Synopsis: Martin and Lewis tee each other off on a PGA tour in The Caddy. Harvey Miller (Jerry Lewis) is an expert with his golf club, except when he tries to play in front of a crowd -- then he completely loses control. With his mind set on getting into the PGA one way or another, he latches onto Joe Read More

The Rose Bowl Story

Actors: Marshall Thompson, Vera Miles, Richard Rober, Natalie Wood, Keith Larsen

Synopsis: Nancy Thorne, 1952's Tournament of Roses queen, makes an extended guest appearances in this Monogram "special." In her first important film role, Vera Miles plays Denny Burke, one of Thorne's attendants, whom stuck-up football hero Steve Davis (Marshall Thompson) mistakes for an heiress. Upon 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

The Tall Target

Actors: Dick Powell, Paula Raymond, Adolphe Menjou, Marshall Thompson, Ruby Dee

Synopsis: The Tall Target is based on a true story: the attempted assassination of President-elect Abraham Lincoln, even before he was able to assume his duties in Washington. Dick Powell stars as New York detective John Kennedy, who learns of the assassination plot early on. When his superiors refuse to Read More

The Basketball Fix

Actors: John Ireland, Marshall Thompson, Vanessa Brown, William Bishop, Hazel Brooks

Synopsis: The title tells all in Realart's Basketball Fix. Talented young basketball star Johnny Long (Marshall Thompson) allows success to go to his head. To keep on living in the manner to which he is accustomed, Johnny agrees to shave a few points here and there at the behest of gambling boss Mike Taft (William Bishop Read More

Devil's Doorway

Actors: Robert Taylor, Louis Calhern, Paula Raymond, Marshall Thompson, Edgar Buchanan, James Mitchell

Synopsis: Devil's Doorway was the first of many top-rank westerns directed by Anthony Mann. RobertTaylor is cast against type as a Native American named Lance Poole. Returning to his people's land after the Civil War, Poole discovers that the Indians are being victimized and persecuted--and, thanks to Read More

Stars in My Crown

Actors: Joel McCrea, Ellen Drew, Dean Stockwell, Lewis Stone

Synopsis: Stars in My Crown is an episodic movie about a rural Southern community in the 19th century. Though the film features a number of characters, it focuses on a preacher who moves into the city and helps solve the town's problems. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide Read More

Dial 1119

Actors: Marshall Thompson, Virginia Field, Sam Levene, Leon Ames

Synopsis: Louis B. Mayer's nephew Gerald proved himself an able director with the MGM "B" thriller Dial 1119. Marshall Thompson stars as an emotionally disturbed young man who pulls out a gun at a bar and holds the patrons hostage. As the police gather outside, the film concentrates on the various bar Read More

Mystery Street

Actors: Ricardo Montalban, Sally Forrest, Bruce Bennett, Elsa Lanchester, Marshall Thompson

Synopsis: Blonde good-time girl Vivian Heldon (Jan Sterling), who lives in a cheap rooming house in a working-class section of Boston, run by the inquisitive and neurotic Mrs. Smerrling (Elsa Lanchester), goes out one night after a phone conversation with her boyfriend, proclaiming that she's got big plans Read More

Battleground

Actors: Van Johnson, John Hodiak, Ricardo Montalban, George Murphy, Marshall Thompson, James Whitmore

Synopsis: Incoming MGM production head Dore Schary ramrodded Battleground into the studio's schedule over the virulent protests of MGM boss Louis Mayer. The result was an award-winning box-office hit, as well as the beginning of the end of Mayer's power. This dramatization of the battles of Bastogne and the Read More

Roseanna McCoy

Actors: Farley Granger, Joan Evans, Charles Bickford, Raymond Massey, Richard Basehart

Synopsis: The saga of the Hatfield-and-McCoy feud is romanticized in Samuel Goldwyn's Roseanna McCoy. Newcomer Joan Evans stars as the title character, whose elopement with Johnse Hatfield (Farley Granger) serves to further fuel the flames of the deadly mountain feud. The opposing patriarches, Devil Anse Read More

Homecoming

Actors: Clark Gable, Lana Turner, Anne Baxter, John Hodiak, Ray Collins

Synopsis: When Homecoming was first released in 1948, some observers felt that Clark Gable's unusually sensitive performance was based on his own memories of losing his wife Carole Lombard in a 1942 plane crash. Intriguingly, Gable's Homecoming co-star is Lana Turner, with whom it was rumored that he was Read More

Words and Music

Actors: Mickey Rooney, Perry Como, Judy Garland, June Allyson, Lena Horne, Gene Kelly

Synopsis: The life stories of Broadway tunesmiths Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart are prettified for the screen in MGM's Words and Music. Billed fourth, the colorless Tom Drake plays Rodgers, but never mind that: the film belongs to Mickey Rooney, as the dynamic, self-destructive Lorenz Hart. Read More

B.F.'s Daughter

Actors: Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin, Charles Coburn, Keenan Wynn, Richard Hart

Synopsis: Barbara Stanwyck plays Polly Fulton, rebellious daughter of a wealthy industrialist (Charles Coburn). Polly marries a conservative economist professor (Richard Hart), but she chafes at his values and leaves him for socialist professor Van Heflin. Polly nearly ruins both her father's reputation and Read More

Command Decision

Actors: Clark Gable, Walter Pidgeon, Van Johnson, Brian Donlevy, Charles Bickford

Synopsis: Command Decision is a stagebound but consummately acted adaptation of William Wister Haines' Broadway play. Clark Gable, starring in the role essayed on Broadway by Paul Kelly, plays Air Force Brigadier General "Casey" Dennis. With time at a premium, Dennis sends waves of bomber squadrons into Read More

The Romance of Rosy Ridge

Actors: Van Johnson, Joyce Arling, Janet Leigh, James Bell, William Bishop, Thomas Mitchell, Jim Davis, Charles Dingle

Synopsis: Janet Leigh made an impressive film-debut in MGM's The Romance of Rosy Ridge. Though the title suggests a lighthearted musical, the film is actually a fairly sober adaptation (with slight comic undertones) of a novel by Mackinlay Kantor. In the days following the Civil War, a Missouri farming Read More

The Cockeyed Miracle

Actors: Frank Morgan, Keenan Wynn, Cecil Kellaway, Audrey Totter, Richard Quine

Synopsis: Frank Morgan plays a turn-of-the-century shipbuilder who dies of a sudden heart attack. Morgan is summoned to Heaven by the ghost of the father (Keenan Wynn), who'd been killed in a barroom brawl at an early age and thus is now younger than his own son! After a few amusing efforts at testing his Read More

Gallant Bess

Actors: Marshall Thompson, George Tobias, Clem Bevans, Donald Curtis, Murray Alper

Synopsis: According to the MGM publicity department, Gallant Bess was based on a true story, as told by Naval Reserve officer Marvin Park. Bess is a beautiful mare owned by young Tex (Marshall Thompson), who runs a stock ranch. When Tex joins the Seabees at the outbreak of WW2, he is forced to leave Bess Read More

The Show-Off

Actors: Leon Ames, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, George Cleveland, Lila Leeds, Marjorie Main

Synopsis: Previously filmed in 1926 and 1934, George Kelly's venerable stage comedy The Show-Off was dusted off as a Red Skelton vehicle in 1946. Skelton is well cast as Aubrey Piper, an inveterate braggart who sorely annoys the family of his wife Amy (Marilyn Maxwell). All talk but no action, Piper gets Read More

The Secret Heart

Actors: Claudette Colbert, June Allyson, Walter Pidgeon, Lionel Barrymore, Robert Sterling

Synopsis: The Secret Heart is a psychological drama starring June Allyson as a disturbed teenager obsessed with the memory of her dead father and unable to embrace her stepmother. Following the suicide of her father, Penny Addams (Allyson) begins to behave strangely, even locking herself in her room and Read More

Bad Bascomb

Actors: Wallace Beery, Margaret O'Brien, Marjorie Main, J. Carrol Naish, Frances Rafferty

Synopsis: Bad Bascomb is an expensive MGM western, tailor-made for the blubbery talents of Wallace Beery. Beery plays the badman of the title, whose heart is softened by a sweet little child (Margaret O'Brien at her most cloying). Just about to make a clean getaway, Beery realizes that the child is in Read More

The Valley of Decision

Actors: Greer Garson, Gregory Peck, Donald Crisp, Lionel Barrymore, Preston S. Foster

Synopsis: Based on Marcia Davenport's novel and set in 1870, Valley of Decision details the romance between a housemaid named Mary Rafferty (Greer Garson) and her employer's son, Paul Scott (Gregory Peck). Paul's father, William (Donald Crisp), owns a Pittsburgh steel mill where Mary's father, Pat (Lionel Barrymore Read More

Twice Blessed

Actors: Preston S. Foster, Gail Patrick, Lee Wilde, Lynn Wilde, Richard Gaines

Synopsis: The little-known Twice Blessed was an MGM vehicle for the Wilde Twins, who were first introduced in Andy Hardy's Double Trouble. Not surprisingly, the film is predicated on a mistaken-identity gimmick, with "typical" teenage girl Terry Turner (Lee Wilde) trading places with her high-IQ look-alike Read More

They Were Expendable

Actors: Robert Montgomery, John Wayne, Donna Reed, Cameron Mitchell, Ward Bond

Synopsis: John Brickley (Robert Montgomery) believes in PT boats, and as a lowly U.S. Navy lieutenant stationed in the Philippines, that makes him a radical thinker. "Your boats maneuver beautifully," an admiral (Charles Trowbridge) tells him, "but if I'm going into combat, I prefer something a little more Read More

The Clock

Actors: Judy Garland, Robert Walker, James Gleason, Keenan Wynn, Marshall Thompson

Synopsis: The Clock was designed by MGM as a "small" picture--though characteristically, it was a bigger production than most "A" efforts from any other studio. Paul Gallico's simple story involves a girl (Judy Garland) and a GI (Robert Walker), who meet under the huge clock at New York's Pennsylvania Read More

Reckless Age

Actors: Gloria Jean, Henry Stephenson, Kathleen Howard, Franklin Pangborn, Andrew Tombes

Synopsis: Reckless Age is a by-the-numbers Universal musical, elevated by the presence of perky songstress Gloria Jean. The star plays Linda Wadsworth, the granddaughter of fabulously wealthy department-store magnate J. H. Wadsworth (Henry Stephenson). Rebelling against Wadsworth's close-minded tyranny Read More

Blonde Fever

Actors: Philip Dorn, Mary Astor, Felix Bressart, Gloria Grahame, Marshall Thompson

Synopsis: MGM's notion of a "B" picture would be an "A" production at any other studio, and Blonde Fever is no exception. Philip Dorn heads the cast as restauranteur Peter Donay, happily married to the pleasant but plain Delilah (Mary Astor). Approaching "that certain age", Donay's head is turned by Read More

The Purple Heart

Actors: Dana Andrews, Richard Conte, Farley Granger, Sam Levene, Kevin O'Shea, Don "Red" Barry, Tala Birell

Synopsis: The year is 1942: eight American airmen crash-land during the Doolittle bombing raid on Tokyo and are taken prisoner. Though slated for execution, the pilots are put through a "show trial" by the military, on a charge of committing war crimes. The Japanese judges promise to be merciful if only the Read More