Michael RossFilmography

Adam-12: Log 124: Airport

Synopsis: The men of Adam-12 have quite a full case load in this episode. One of the challenges facing mobile officers Reed (Kent McCord) and Malloy (Martin Milner) is to locate a young runaway named Diane (played by Ronne Troup, the daughter of future Emergency! costar Bobby Troup). There's also the little Read More

Branded: The Assassins, Part 1

Synopsis: In the first episode of a two-part story, Jason McCord (Chuck Connors) is again summoned to Washington by President Grant (William Bryant). This time, Jason is asked to infiltrate a group of insurrectionists who may or may not be plotting to assassinate the President and overthrow the government. Read More

Branded: The Assassins, Part 2

Synopsis: In the second episode of a two-part story, Jason McCord (Chuck Connors) has infiltrated a group of insurrectionists who plan to assassinate President Grant. When Jason's cover is blown, the assassins boldly make a public attempt on both his life and Grant's--leaving an incriminating dagger behind. Read More

The Munsters: Herman's Sorority Caper

Synopsis: Placed in a trance by Grandpa (Al Lewis) to cure a bad case of hiccups, Herman (Fred Gwynne) is discovered by a pair of frat brothers (one of whom is played by Ken Osmond, aka "Eddie Haskell" of Leave It to a Beaver fame). Assuming that Herman is a monstrous mannequin, the prankish collegians Read More

Petticoat Junction: Hooterville Hurricane

Synopsis: Uncle Joe (Edgar Buchanan) becomes a boxing promoter when local plumber Herman Crawley (Brett Pearson) turns out to have the strength of Hercules. Now, all Herman (aka "the Hooterville Hurricane") has to do is last three rounds with professional pugilist Kid Dynamite (Michael Ross) in order to Read More

The Family Jewels

Actors: Jerry Lewis, Sebastian Cabot, Donna Butterworth, Neil Hamilton, Gene Baylos, Milton Frome, Jay Adler

Synopsis: As if one Jerry Lewis wasn't enough, The Family Jewels offers no fewer than seven Jerrys. Fans of Lewis will like the film. Others should be advised to steer clear of any and all French film festivals. The plot revolves around nine-year-old Donna Peyton (Donna Butterworth), who stands to inherit Read More

Fledglings

Synopsis: The Fledglings are two-bit filmmakers Mike Ross and Iain Quarrier. Hoping to persuade American producer Victor Lowndes to bankroll their latest project, Ross and Quarrier enlist the aid of model Julia White. Reluctantly, White agrees to bed the lascivious Lowndes in order to wheedle the necessary Read More

Petticoat Junction: A Millionaire for Kate

Synopsis: A pre-I Dream of Jeannie Hayden Rorke guests in this episode as Herbie Grant, a former schoolmate of Kate Bradley (Bea Benadaret). Now known as "H.B. Grant", Herbie arrives at the Shady Rest announcing that he is a millionaire--and that he is very, very interested in renewing his friendship with Read More

The Patsy

Actors: Jerry Lewis, Ina Balin, Everett Sloane, Phil Harris, Keenan Wynn

Synopsis: Toward the end of Jerry Lewis's Paramount studio period, Lewis slapped together this bitter comedy about Hollywood phoniness and fame that has to be the most rancid portrait of the Hollywood star system in the Rat Pack era this side of Clifford Odets. When a famous entertainer suddenly is killed Read More

The Disorderly Orderly

Actors: Jerry Lewis, Glenda Farrell, Everett Sloane, Karen Sharpe, Kathleen Freeman

Synopsis: In this comedy classic, Jerry Lewis plays Jerome Littlefield, an orderly in a mental hospital in this slapstick situation comedy that makes full use of Lewis's patented brand of screwball comedy. Dr. Jean Howard (Glenda Farrell) is the exasperated head of the sanitarium who almost becomes a Read More

Who's Minding the Store?

Actors: Jerry Lewis, Jill St. John, Agnes Moorehead, John McGiver, Ray Walston

Synopsis: This frantic comedy finds Raymond (Jerry Lewis) working in a department store. Mr. Tuttle (John McGiver) is the watchful owner, whose outspoken wife Phoebe (Agnes Moorehead) makes no secret about her feelings that Raymond is an incompetent boob. Barbara (Jill St. John) is the pretty elevator Read More

The Andy Griffith Show: Barney Mends a Broken Heart

Actors: Joanna Moore

Synopsis: Andy becomes jealous when he sees his girlfriend Peggy in the company of her old friend Don (Fred Beir). Sensing that Andy needs to play the field a bit, Barney tries to fix his pal up with another girl-and thus are introduced two of the series' most outrageous recurring characters, "fun girls" Read More

It's Only Money

Actors: Jerry Lewis, Joan O'Brien, Zachary Scott, Jack Weston, Jesse White

Synopsis: Jerry Lewis stars in this broad slapstick comedy as Lester March, a TV repairman who dreams of some day being a private detective like his friend and role model Mr. Flint (Jesse White). One night, Lester sees a report on television about Cecilia Albright (Mae Questel), the elderly owner of a Read More

The Errand Boy

Actors: Jerry Lewis, Brian Donlevy, Howard McNear, Dick Wesson, Robert Ivers, Pat Dahl

Synopsis: The second of Jerry Lewis' directorial endeavors, The Errand Boy, like its predecessor The Bellboy, is essentially a series of "spot gags," some hilarious, others only moderately amusing. The gossamer-thin plot finds Morty Tashman (Lewis) being hired by the CEO of "Paramutuel Pictures" (Brian Donlevy Read More

Bonanza: San Francisco Holiday

Actors: Lorne Greene, Pernell Roberts, Michael Landon, Dan Blocker, Kathleen Crowley

Synopsis: At the end of a cattle drive, the Cartwrights and their cowhands look forward to rest and relaxation in San Francisco, Instead, two of Ben's gullible drovers are shanghaied on a boat bound for Hong Kong. While searching for his missing employees, Ben is himself shanghaied, forcing Hoss and Joe to Read More

Leave It to Beaver: A Horse Named Nick

Actors: Burt Mustin, Michael Ross, Bill Baldwin

Synopsis: When Beaver (Jerry Mathers) and Wally (Tony Dow) are promised ten dollars apiece if they help clean up after the animals at a traveling circus, their parents advise them to get the money in advance. But they don't, and when time comes to be paid, they receive not a penny -- but are instead saddled Read More

Attack of the 50 Foot Woman

Actors: Allison Hayes, William Hudson, Yvette Vickers, Roy Gordon, George Douglas

Synopsis: Attack of the 50 Foot Woman may well be one of the worst science-fiction films of all time, but that's not to say that it isn't thoroughly enjoyable. Allison Hayes achieved screen immortality as Nancy Archer, the wealthy, dipsomaniac wife of shameless philanderer Harry Archer (William Hudson). Read More

Kiss Them for Me

Actors: Cary Grant, Suzy Parker, Jayne Mansfield, Leif Erickson, Ray Walston

Synopsis: Luther Davis' racy wartime comedy Kiss Them for Me was expurgated a bit for the 1957 film version. Cary Grant, Ray Walston and Larry Blyden portray three navy war heroes who've been booked on a morale-building "vacation" in San Francisco. Eluding their ulcerated public relations officer (Werner Klemperer Read More

The Buster Keaton Story

Actors: Donald O'Connor, Ann Blyth, Rhonda Fleming, Peter Lorre, Larry Keating

Synopsis: The Buster Keaton Story is the sublimely inaccurate life story of immortal film comedian Buster Keaton, played by Donald O'Connor. The film begins with young Buster appearing in his parents' circus acrobatic act (the real Keatons never appeared in a circus, but were vaudevillians instead). After Buster Read More

Short Cut to Hell

Actors: Robert Ivers, Georgann Johnson, William Bishop, Jacques Aubuchon, Peter Baldwin

Synopsis: As a favor to an old friend, producer Alex Gordon, James Cagney turned director for the first and only time in his career with Short Cut to Hell. The film is a remake of the 1942 Veronica Lake-Alan Ladd starrer This Gun For Hire. Robert Ivers plays Kyle, a hired killer who is double-crossed by his Read More

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: The Night the World Ended

Synopsis: Halloran (Harold Stone), an obnoxious newspaper reporter known for his elaborate practical jokes, chooses an old barfly named Johnny (Russell Collins) as his next victim. To this end, Halloran prints up a dummy newspaper bearing the headline "World to End Tonight at 11:45 p.m." Thoroughly Read More

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Number Twenty-Two

Synopsis: Petty thief Steve Morgan (Rip Torn) uses a toy gun to hold up a candy store. Later on, the cops make the necessary connections and Steve is arrested. At first, he is thrilled and delighted that so many people are making so much of a fuss over so minor a crime. But Steve is in for quite a shock Read More

The Delicate Delinquent

Actors: Jerry Lewis, Darren McGavin, Martha Hyer, Robert Ivers, Horace McMahon

Synopsis: Jerry Lewis' first solo effort was also his first headlong plunge into pathos. The Delicate Delinquent stars Jerry as mixed-up teenaged janitor Sidney Pythias, a nice kid on the verge of throwing in with a not-so-nice street gang. Sensing potential in Sidney, police officer Mike Damon (Darren McGavin Read More

Fighting Trouble

Synopsis: In this entry in the long running Bowery Boys series, the boys begin working as free-lance photographers. Trouble ensues when they take a picture of a crime lord. They are in such a rush to get the picture back to the paper they work for that they accidently destroy the negative. To get another Read More

The Lieutenant Wore Skirts

Actors: Tom Ewell, Sheree North, Rita Moreno, Rick Jason, Les Tremayne

Synopsis: Frank Tashlin directed this comedy about a man whose marriage hits the skids when his wife gets caught in the draft. Gregory Whitcomb (Tom Ewell) served with distinction in the Army during WWII, but he now makes his living as a television writer. Gregory's wife Katy (Sheree North), several years Read More

Hollywood or Bust

Actors: Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Anita Ekberg, Pat Crowley, "Slapsie Maxie" Rosenbloom

Synopsis: Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis made their last joint film appearance in the girl-filled musical Hollywood or Bust. The thinnish plot finds inveterate film fan Jerry making a cross-country journey to Tinseltown for the purpose of meeting his favorite screen star, the buxom Anita Ekberg (the film's Read More

The Wild Party

Actors: Anthony Quinn, Carol Ohmart, Arthur Franz, Jay Robinson, Kathryn Grant

Synopsis: The "hipster" dialogue bandied about in The Wild Party is reason enough to sit through this curious time capsule. Anthony Quinn stars as an embittered ex-athlete who seeks an escape from his dead-end existence. Unfortunately, Quinn opts for a life of crime when he ties up with unemployed pianist Read More

Jail Busters

Synopsis: In this entry in the long-running series, the Bowery Boys must help a reporter who was beaten up during an undercover investigation at a local prison. With the consent of the reporter's editor, the boys pull off a phony jewel caper and two of them are imprisoned. In the pokey, they learn that the Read More

Night Freight

Actors: Forrest Tucker, Barbara Britton, Keith Larsen, Thomas Gomez, Michael Ross

Synopsis: Forrest Tucker stars in this yeoman Republic actioner. A short-term railroad freight line is threatened with extinction by a swifter trucking service. Keith Larsen is Tucker's business opponent, as well his rival over the affections of the beauteous Barbara Britton. When the train service evinces Read More

The Return of Jack Slade

Actors: John Ericson, Mari Blanchard, Neville Brand, Jon Shepodd

Synopsis: John Ericson essays the title character in Return of Jack Slade. Actually, Ericson plays Jack Slade Jr., determined to make amends for the wrongs perpetrated by his outlaw dad. Hired as a Pinkerton agent, the younger Slade goes undercover, joining a criminal gang in Wyoming. He falls in love with Read More

Son of Sinbad

Actors: Kim Novak, Dale Robertson, Sally Forrest, Vincent Price, Mari Blanchard

Synopsis: Dale Robertson stars as the Son of Sinbad in this tongue-in-cheek Arabian Nights romp. Hoping to rescue Bagdad from the forces of the dreaded Tamerlaine, Sinbad Jr. enlists the aid of the Khalif (Leon Askin) by promising to deliver the secret of "Greek Fire". To expedite this, he enlists the aid Read More

Untamed

Actors: Tyrone Power, Susan Hayward, Richard Egan, John Justin, Agnes Moorehead

Synopsis: Tyrone Power is a Dutchman, and Susan Hayward is an Irish lass. If you believe that, then the rest of Untamed will go down a lot easier. Power is a Boer calvary commander attempting to bring peace to his South African homeland. He has an affair with Hayward, a married woman whose husband is killed Read More

Bowery to Bagdad

Synopsis: It's the Bowery Boys again, in their 35th feature film. Sach (Huntz Hall) buys a battered oil lamp, which turns out to have belonged to Aladdin some 2000 years earlier. Out pops a genial genie (Eric Blore), who grants every wish of Sach and his pal Slip (Leo Gorcey). Gangsters steal the lamp, but Read More

Captain Kidd and the Slave Girl

Synopsis: Anthony Dexter, who had essayed the title role in the 1951 biopic Valentino, plays a beardless Captain Kidd. Eva Gabor, who would later costar with Arnold the Pig on TV's Green Acres, is the slave girl. Gabor has been dispatched by the villains to seduce Kidd and determine the whereabouts of the Read More

Those Redheads from Seattle

Actors: Rhonda Fleming, Gene Barry, Agnes Moorehead, Guy Mitchell, Teresa Brewer

Synopsis: Paramount's Pine-Thomas production unit takes the plunge into the 3-D craze in Those Redheads from Seattle. The titular carrot-tops are played by Rhonda Fleming, Teresa Brewer and Cynthia and Kay Bell, as members of a singing-sister act. Arriving in the Yukon during the Gold Rush days in the Read More

Francis Covers the Big Town

Actors: Donald O'Connor, Yvette Dugay, Gene Lockhart, Nancy Guild, Larry Gates

Synopsis: In this fourth of the "Francis" series, former Army officer Peter Stirling (Donald O'Connor) becomes a reporter for a big city newspaper. His greatest source of news tips is his talking mule Francis (voice by Chill Wills), who has become friendly with all the police horses. When asked how he Read More

The Girls of Pleasure Island

Actors: Don Taylor, Leo Genn, Elsa Lanchester, Philip Ober, Joan Elan

Synopsis: Because of its misleadingly sensual title and the participation of screenwriter/director F. Hugh Herbert (author of the once-notorious "The Moon is Blue"), Girls of Pleasure Island was ballyhooed in 1953 as the ultimate in sex and sin. In truth, the film is an innocent, inconsequential WW II Read More

The Girl Next Door

Actors: Dan Dailey, June Haver, Dennis Day, Cara Williams

Synopsis: This lightweight 20th Century-Fox Technicolor musical stars Dan Dailey as Bill Carter, a widowed comic strip illustrator and June Haver as Jeannie, the title character, a glamorous Broadway star. When next-door-neighbors Bill and Jeannie fall in love, Bill's son Joe (Billy Gray) seethes with Read More

The Big Heat

Actors: Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, Jocelyn Brando, Alexander Scourby, Lee Marvin

Synopsis: Fritz Lang directed this gritty drama of gangland murder and police corruption, which was considered quite violent in its day. Dave Bannion (Glenn Ford) is a scrupulously honest police detective who learns that one of his fellow officers has committed suicide. Bannion is told by the officer's Read More

Clipped Wings

Actors: Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bernard Gorcey, Renie Riano, Todd Karns

Synopsis: When the Bowery Boys go to visit a friend on an Air Force base, they are pulled into an investigation to discover why their friend is being accused of treason. Accidentally enlisting in the service, they continue their investigation and eventually stumble on a Nazi plot. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Read More

Don't Bother to Knock

Actors: Richard Widmark, Marilyn Monroe, Anne Bancroft, Donna Corcoran, Jeanne Cagney

Synopsis: Sex symbol Marilyn Monroe went dramatic in 1952's Don't Bother to Knock. Monroe plays Nell Forbes, a beautiful but suicidal young woman, recently released from a mental institution. She doesn't mention this on her resumé when she takes a baby-sitting job in a posh hotel. Jed Towers (Richard Widmark Read More

Lost in Alaska

Actors: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Mitzi Green, Tom Ewell, Bruce Cabot

Synopsis: One reviewer of Abbott & Costello's Lost in Alaska summed up the proceeding in three pithy words: "Lost is right." While not A&C's worst film, it's several miles removed from their best. Cast as firemen in turn-of-the-century San Francisco, Bud and Lou rescue would-be suicide Tom Ewell. It turns Read More

Mara Maru

Actors: Errol Flynn, Ruth Roman, Raymond Burr, Paul Picerni, Richard Webb

Synopsis: A very tired-looking Errol Flynn heads the cast of Maru Maru. Flynn plays deep-sea diver Gregory Mason, who is hired to locate a sunken PT boat bearing a diamond-encrusted religious icon. Mason's employer on this mission is the disreputable Brock Benedict (Raymond Burr), a firm believer in the old Read More

My Wife's Best Friend

Actors: Anne Baxter, MacDonald Carey, Cecil Kellaway, Casey Adams, Catherine McLeod

Synopsis: This 20th Century-Fox programmer stars Anne Baxter and Macdonald Carey as husband and wife, both passengers on an airliner. When the plane develops serious engine trouble, it looks like the end for everyone on board. Certain that he's facing an imminent demise, Carey confesses to Baxter that he's Read More

Against All Flags

Actors: Errol Flynn, Maureen O'Hara, Anthony Quinn, Alice Kelley, Mildred Natwick

Synopsis: After James Stewart's financial windfall attending his "percentage of profits" deal on Winchester 73, Errol Flynn decided to cash in by making his own deal with Universal Pictures, accepting a moderate fee up front and a huge chunk of the gross for Against All Flags. Set in the 16th century, the Read More

I Was a Communist for the F.B.I.

Actors: Frank Lovejoy, Dorothy Hart, Philip Carey, James Millican, Richard Webb

Synopsis: The real Matt Cvetic was a borderline alcoholic with a nasty disposition (he once allegedly beat his sister-in-law so badly she required hospitalization). But Cvetic was also a fervent anti-communist, and so, for a brief period in the early 1950s, he was a folk hero. I Was a Communist for the Read More

Love Nest

Actors: June Haver, William Lundigan, Frank Fay, Marilyn Monroe, Jack Paar

Synopsis: Love Nest is a thoroughly likeable formula comedy with a most engaging cast. William Lundigan plays Jim Scott, an aspiring writer who, together with his wife Connie (June Haver), moves into the basement of an apartment building that they've bought. Scott's hopes to keep financially solvent are Read More

Ghost Chasers

Actors: Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Jan Kayne, Bernard Gorcey, Lloyd Corrigan

Synopsis: The Bowery Boys once more frolic about in an "old dark house" setting in Ghost Chasers. The story finds Slip Mahoney (Leo Gorcey) and his gang endeavoring to expose a phoney seance racket. Slip's pal Sach is aided and abetted in this endeavor by a genuine ghost, a jovial 17th-century wraith named Read More

Let's Make It Legal

Actors: Claudette Colbert, MacDonald Carey, Zachary Scott, Barbara Bates, Robert Wagner

Synopsis: Let's Make It Legal begins at the end--the end of the long marriage between beautiful grandmother Miriam (Claudette Colbert) and her chronic-gambler husband Hugh (Macdonald Carey). Barbara (Barbara Bates), the daughter of the couple, hopes to bring her parents back together, which proves to be a Read More

The Well

Actors: Richard Rober, Gwendolyn Laster, Maide Norman, George Hamilton, Ernest Anderson

Synopsis: The Well is a modest but generally effective plea for racial tolerance. Based loosely on a real incident, the film tells of the disappearance of a little African-American girl in a small, segregated community. Caucasian Claude Packard (Harry Morgan, the nephew of the town's richest man (Barry Kelley Read More

Elopement

Actors: Clifton Webb, Anne Francis, Charles Bickford, William Lundigan, Reginald Gardiner

Synopsis: In this romance, an industrial designer is bitterly disappointed when he discovers that upon graduation his daughter decides to elope with her psychology professor rather than pursue a career. The professor's family is also not pleased by the union. Both families, who despise each other, try to Read More

Crazy over Horses

Actors: Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Gloria Saunders, William Benedict, Bernard Gorcey, Tim Ryan

Synopsis: On a pure storytelling level, Crazy Over Horses is one of the best entries in Monogram's "Bowery Boys" series. This time, Slip (Leo Gorcey), Sach (Huntz Hall) and the gang come into possession of a race horse. Slip is convinced that the horse, which he'd picked up as payment for a debt owed to Read More

Golden Girl

Actors: Mitzi Gaynor, Dale Robertson, Dennis Day, James Barton, Una Merkel

Synopsis: Golden Girl is the life story (sort of) of legendary 19th-century American entertainer Lotta Crabtree. The daughter of a luckless gambler (James Barton), young Lotta (Mitzi Gaynor) supports herself and her dad by singing and dancing in mining camps during the California Gold Rush of 1849. She Read More

My Favorite Spy

Actors: Bob Hope, Hedy Lamarr, Francis L. Sullivan, Arnold Moss, John Archer

Synopsis: Bob Hope is up to his famous nose in danger in this espionage comedy. Second-rate burlesque comic Peanuts White (Hope) is approached by federal agents who think that he's international spy Eric Augustine, to whom Peanuts bears a striking resemblance. When they realize that Peanuts and Eric are two Read More

Peggy

Actors: Diana Lynn, Charles Coburn, Charlotte Greenwood, Barbara Lawrence, Charles Drake

Synopsis: Peggy Brookfield (Diana Lynn) is one of many aspirants for the position of Queen of the annual Tournament of Roses in Pasadena, Calfornia. Also competing is Peggy's sister Susan (Barbara Lawrence). Both girls make the trek from Ohio to Pasadena in the company of their father (Charles Coburn), a Read More

Wabash Avenue

Actors: Betty Grable, Victor Mature, Phil Harris, James Barton, Reginald Gardiner

Synopsis: Betty Grable's Wabash Avenue is an agreeable remake of Grable's 1943 hit Coney Island. The locale is changed from New York to Chicago, but the plot remains basically the same. Once again, the star is cast as a honky-tonk singer, Ruby Summers, who is groomed for classier show-business endeavors by Read More

Blonde Dynamite

Actors: Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Adele Jergens, Gabriel Dell, Harry Lewis

Synopsis: Blonde Dynamite was the 17th of Monogram/Allied Artists' 48 Bowery Boys entries. This time, the boys have transformed Louie's Sweet Shop into an escort bureau. Louie (Bernard Gorcey) has little to say on the matter, since he's on vacation and knows nothing about this new business enterprise. The Read More

The Desert Hawk

Actors: Yvonne De Carlo, Richard Greene, Jackie Gleason, George Macready, Rock Hudson

Synopsis: The Desert Hawk deserves to be seen on the basis of its cast alone. No more believable than any of Universal's other sword-and-sand epics, this one stars Yvonne de Carlo as Princess Shaharazade (sic) and Richard Greene as Omar, aka the Desert Hawk. By day a humble blacksmith, the Desert Hawk Read More

The Stratton Story

Actors: James Stewart, June Allyson, Frank Morgan, Agnes Moorehead, Bill Williams

Synopsis: Both Van Johnson and Gregory Peck were considered for the role of baseball star Monty Stratton in the 1949 biopic The Stratton Story before settling upon the real Stratton's own first choice, James Stewart. The film covers several years in the 1930s, as Texas farm boy Stratton rises from the Read More

Miss Grant Takes Richmond

Actors: Lucille Ball, William Holden, Janis Carter, James Gleason, Gloria Henry

Synopsis: Lucille Ball is Miss Grant, an efficient but naïve secretary hired by William Holden. Ostensibly a legit real estate salesman, Holden is actually the brains of a bookie ring. It takes forever for Ball to tumble to what's going on, but when she does she settles matters in the same fashion as her Read More

D.O.A.

Actors: Edmond O'Brien, Pamela Britton, Luther Adler, Beverly Campbell, Lynne Baggett

Synopsis: "I want to report a murder...mine." So begins D.O.A. Told in flashback, the story tells of how vacationing CPA Frank Bigelow (Edmond O'Brien) becomes the recipient of a deadly poison known as iridium. Told by a doctor that he hasn't long to live, Bigelow desperately retraces his movements of the Read More