Roddy McDowallFilmography

Keepers of the Frame

Actors: Alan Alda, Laurence Austin, Stan Brakhage, Jean Picker Firstenberg, Leonard Maltin

Synopsis: It is estimated that 80% of all films released during the silent era have been lost forever, with no prints in existence today (a larger percentage of paintings from the Renaissance have survived), while some films from as little as 15 to 20 years ago have suffered color fading so severe they're Read More

A Bug's Life

Actors: Dave Foley, Kevin Spacey, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Hayden Panettiere, Phyllis Diller

Synopsis: John Lasseter, director of Pixar's movie phenomenon Toy Story, has set new standards in computer animation with this effort, another Disney-released children's epic entitled A Bug's Life. Blending classic Disney storytelling characters and the mysterious underground world of bugs, Lasseter has Read More

The Truth About Lying

Actors: John Ritter, Michele Scarabelli, Daphne Zuniga

Synopsis: Burned-out, boozing crime novelist Bruce Simon Barker (John Ritter) emerges from his doldrums long enough to involve himself in a bizarre missing-persons case. At the urging of his police inspector sister (Samantha Eggar), Bruce investigates the disappearance of a baby. There have been no ransom Read More

Something to Believe In

Actors: William McNamara, Maria Pitillo, Tom Conti, Maria Schneider, Ian Bannen

Synopsis: Lew Grade is the executive producer of this British-German co-production, a romantic drama that gets underway in Las Vegas with several casino cameos (Robert Wagner, Roddy McDowall, Jill St. John, William Hootkins). Lymphoma leaves Vegas croupier Maggie (Maria Pitillo) only a few weeks to live, so Read More

Behind the Planet of the Apes

Actors: Roddy McDowall

Synopsis: This documentary takes a look back at the making of Planet of the Apes. Not just a campy sci-fi thriller, the film was also an expression of sublimated fears of a world wracked by the Cold War. Special attention is paid to the makeup that made viewers forget they were watching people in ape Read More

Star Power: The Creation of United Artists

Actors: Roddy McDowall

Synopsis: Star Power: The Creation of United Artists tells the story of four major figures of the silent film era, actor Charlie Chaplin, director D.W. Griffith, actress Mary Pickford, and actor Douglas Fairbanks, coming together to create a successful studio of their own, United Artists Corporation. Via Read More

The Second Jungle Book: Mowgli and Baloo

Actors: Bill Williams, Jamie Williams, Bill Campbell, Roddy McDowall, David Paul Francis, Gulshan Grover

Synopsis: A prequel to The Jungle Book, this live-action kids' film follows the young wild boy Mowgli (Jamie Williams) as he's pursued through the late 19th century Indian jungle by a variety of "civilized" men, each seeking him for their own nefarious purposes. When Mowgli is spotted by the passengers on a Read More

It's My Party

Actors: Eric Roberts, Gregory Harrison, Lee Grant, Marlee Matlin, Paul Regina

Synopsis: In this bittersweet comedy drama, a man nearing the end of his life seeks closure with his family and friends, and he confronts the issues of the right to die. Nick Stark (Eric Roberts) is a successful architect who is openly gay. He was involved in a committed relationship with Brandon Theis (Gregory Harrison Read More

Unlikely Angel

Actors: Dolly Parton, Roddy McDowall

Synopsis: Dolly Parton stars in this light-hearted story as Ruby Diamond, a singer who unexpectedly dies in an auto wreck and finds herself meeting the man at the pearly gates. Ruby discovers she did not rack up enough good deed points to enter the kingdom of Heaven, but she's given a second chance to come Read More

Unknown Origin

Last Summer in the Hamptons

Actors: Brooke Smith, Victoria Foyt, Viveca Lindfors, Jon Robin Baitz, Melissa Leo, Martha Plimpton

Synopsis: A legendary theatrical family gather for one final show at their East Hamptons estate in this verbose comedy-drama. Swedish actress Viveca Lindfors takes center stage as Helena, the family matriarch, who has made the difficult decision to sell the estate due to financial problems. A mixed group Read More

Star Hunter

Actors: Roddy McDowall, Stella Stevens, Ken Stott, Zack Ward, Wendy Schumacher

Synopsis: In this sci-fi chiller, a large group of adolescents are kidnapped by a pair of fugitive Star Hunters. The terrified teens have no idea that they are about to become the prey in the aliens' latest hunting expedition. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Grass Harp

Actors: Piper Laurie, Sissy Spacek, Walter Matthau, Edward Furlong, Nell Carter

Synopsis: Based on the novel by Truman Capote, this often-witty coming-of-age drama looks at a young man growing up with an unusual family in the Deep South in the 1940s. After the death of his parents, Collin Fenwick (Edward Furlong) finds himself living in a small town with two of his aunts, Dolly (Piper Laurie Read More

Heads

Actors: Jon Cryer

Synopsis: This black comedy stars Jon Cryer as a young reporter following the case of a serial killer who decapitates his victims. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide Read More

Mirror, Mirror 2: Raven Dance

Synopsis: The same haunted mirror that bedeviled people in the first film is back. This time it is used to help a crook steal a young girl's rightful inheritance. Low-budget chills. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Hart to Hart: Home Is Where the Hart Is

Actors: Robert Wagner

Synopsis: In this feature-length continuation of the popular husband-and-wife television detective series, the fabulously wealthy and impossibly attractive Jonathan (Robert Wagner) and Jennifer (Stephanie Powers) Hart travel to the town of Kingman's Ferry to mourn the death of Jennifer's mentor. Suspecting Read More

The Hollywood Collection: The Story of Lassie

Synopsis: This hour-long look at Lassie, the lovable collie, was produced by PBS in 1994 to commemorate Lassie's 40th year on television. June Lockhart narrates this documentary, which is crammed full of movie material and clips from the Lassie television shows. Included are interviews with actors such as Roddy McDowall Read More

Angel 4: Undercover

Actors: Darlene Vogel, Roddy McDowall, Mark de Carlo

Synopsis: In this fourth episode in the "Angel" saga, beautiful former tough-gal Molly Stewart works as a police photographer. In her off hours she is romantically involved with a radio personality. Her new life is going well until an old buddy shows up. Molly's pal is playing groupie for a travelling band Read More

Fatally Yours

Actors: Rick Rossovich, George Lazenby, Roddy McDowall, Sage Stallone

The Magical World of Chuck Jones

Actors: Steven Spielberg, Whoopi Goldberg, Ron Howard, Matt Groening, Leonard Maltin

Synopsis: This colorful, fast-paced documentary pays tribute to animator Chuck Jones on his eightieth birthday. Amidst many clips from his most famous cartoons, major stars and Hollywood figures ranging from Steven Spielburg to Ron Howard to composer Danny Elfman to film historian/critic Leonard Maltin to Read More

Los Gusanos no llevan bufanda

Actors: Clayton Rohner, Roddy McDowall, Anthony Perkins

Encounters of the Fourth Kind: A Report on Communion

The Sands of Time

Actors: Deborah Raffin, Michael Nouri, Ramy Zada, Amanda Plummer, Kim Weeks

Synopsis: In this two-part adventure drama based on a thriller by author Sidney Sheldon, three nuns must run for their lives from a cruel colonel. Their flight leads them straight to a renowned Spanish rebel. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Going Under

Synopsis: In this Navy spoof, a mismatched bunch of sailors are sent to sea as the incompetent crew of the U. S. S. Substandard, a faulty, unfinished submarine. Little does the crew of the Substandard know that the government doesn't intend for them to make it back to shore, as they encounter all kinds of Read More

Earth Angel

Actors: Cathy Podewell, Cindy Williams, Mark Hamill

Synopsis: The made-for-TV Earth Angel stars Cathy Bodewell as Angela, a prom queen who dies in 1962. Unfortunately, Angela has not always lived up to her name, and her entry into Heaven is held up indefinitely. She is given a chance to redeem herself by returning to earth in 1990, where she is to Read More

Deadly Game

Synopsis: Made for cable TV, the story involves a wealthy man who believes that a series of people have wronged him during his life. He invites the seven persons to his private island under the pretense of rewarding them for their good deeds, but they soon find out that his plan is much more devious. ~ John Read More

Double Trouble

Actors: Peter Paul, David Paul, Roddy McDowall, James Doohan, A.J. Johnson

Synopsis: Two beefed-up twins (played by the Paul brothers, Peter and David, who have appeared in several programmers as "The Barbarian Brothers") operating on opposing sides of the law, team up to stop a nefarious crook in this actioner. Peter Jade is a notoriously arrogant burglar who ends up with the key Read More

An Inconvenient Woman

Synopsis: An Inconvenient Woman, an excellent television mini-series based on the novel by Dominick Dunne, which is loosely based on the Alfred Bloomingdale scandal, tells the story of the mistress of a famous man who he has murdered when she threatens his security. Jules Mendelson (Jason Robards) and his Read More

The Big Picture

Actors: Kevin Bacon, Emily Longstreth, J.T. Walsh, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Michael McKean

Synopsis: Another "get even with Hollywood" satire in the tradition of SOB and Movers and Shakers, The Big Picture is an elongated inside joke complete with un-billed celebrity cameos. In this first feature-film directorial effort by actor/writer Christopher Guest, Kevin Bacon plays a "boy wonder" director Read More

Heroes Stand Alone

Actors: Chad Everett, Bradford Dillman, Wayne Grace, Rick Dean, Michael Chieffo

Synopsis: Set in a grim future world, a special U.S. task force is sent to Central America to rescue a downed spy plane. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide Read More

Fright Night Part 2

Actors: Roddy McDowall, William Ragsdale, Traci Lind, Julie Carmen, Russell Clark

Synopsis: This horror-comedy sequel finds the teen protagonist of Fright Night being terrorized by the undead sister of the vampire he killed in the original film. Two years after the death of bloodsucker Jerry Dandridge, young Charley Brewster (William Ragsdale) has settled into life as a college student Read More

Carmilla

Actors: Meg Tilly

Synopsis: Sheridan Le Fanu's erotic horror tale -- the inspiration for Hammer Films' bosom-heaving "Karnstein Trilogy" and Roger Vadim's Blood and Roses -- is given a bit of whitewash in this tepid episode of Shelley Duvall's made-for-cable "Nightmare Classics" series. Inexplicably relocated to the American Read More

Shakma

Actors: Christopher Atkins, Amanda Wyss, Ari Meyers, Roddy McDowall

Synopsis: A group of medical research scientists decide to take a break and play a little Dungeons and Dragons. This horror film follows what happens when one of their experiments comes forth to join them. Bloody mayhem ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Murder, She Wrote: Fire Burn, Cauldron Bubble

Synopsis: The citizens of Cabot Cove are terrified by the arrival of young Irene Terhune (Julian Donald), an apparent practitioner of black magic. Rumors are rife that Irene is actually the ghost of Annie Gorman, a local witch who had supposedly died centuries ago. Inevitably, murder rears it ugly head and Read More

Around the World in 80 Days

Actors: Pierce Brosnan, Eric Idle, Peter Ustinov, Julia Nickson

Synopsis: Pierce Brosnan stars as adventurer Phineas Fogg in this adaptation of Jules Verne's classic story, in which to win a wager he must travel around the globe in 80 days or less. However, Fogg has been blamed for the theft of a large amount of money, and a detective (Peter Ustinov) is hot on his trail Read More

Cutting Class

Actors: Donovan Leitch, Jill Schoelen, Brad Pitt, Roddy McDowall, Martin Mull

Synopsis: This reject from slasher-movie remedial school -- featuring copious amounts of teen sex and the usual unimaginative gore murders -- involves the return of a problem teen (Donovan Leitch) to high school after his release from an institution. After essentially pinning the "Red Herring" sign on the Read More

Doin' Time on Planet Earth

Actors: Nicholas Strouse, Hugh Gillin, Gloria Hendry, Hugh O'Brian, Martha Scott

Synopsis: Ryan Richmond (Nicholas Strouse) is a lonely teen from Sunnydale, Arizona who believes he is a space alien in this offbeat comedy. Charles (Adam West) and his wife Edna (Candice Azzara) are the new neighbors who reinforce Ryan's vivid imagination. Hugh O'Brien plays a former U.S. vice-president Read More

Overboard

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Goldie Hawn, Kurt Russell, Edward Herrmann, Katherine Helmond, Michael Hagerty

Synopsis: This screwball comedy casts real-life couple Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn in a film that finds the latter returning to her roots in a role reminiscent of Private Benjamin (1980). Hawn stars as Joanna Stayton, a snooty heiress who summons carpenter Dean Proffitt (Russell) to her lavish yacht, where Read More

Dead of Winter

Actors: Mary Steenburgen, Roddy McDowall, Jan Rubes, William Russ, Mark Malone

Synopsis: Despite its relative failure at the box office, this is a worthwhile thriller from the director of Bonnie and Clyde. Mary Steenburgen stars as an actress, Katie McGovern, lured to the upstate New York cabin of crazy Dr. Joseph Lewis (Jan Rubes), a diabolical crippled shrink playing a blackmail Read More

MGM Greatest Moments: A Video Sampler

The Wind in the Willows

Actors: Paul H. Frees, Charles Nelson Reilly, José Ferrer

Synopsis: Completed in 1985, Rankin/Bass' feature-length cartoon version of Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows had its network debut delayed several times; the film finally premiered on July 5, 1987. This adaption of the 1908 Grahame story was more faithful to the source that the enjoyable but overly Read More

Vi: Portrait of a Silent Star

Synopsis: This historic interview features a discussion with her associations with Buster Keaton and many others. Viola Dana appeared in over 100 films before retiring in 1929. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Murder, She Wrote: School for Scandal

Synopsis: Jessica (Angela Lansbury arrives at the campus of Crenshaw University to receive an honorary degree. Among the faculty members is Professor Joselyn Clover (Polly Bergen), whose daughter Daphne (Mary Kate McGeehan) has penned a notoriously lurid best-selling novel. When the campus "stud" is Read More

Fright Night

Actors: Chris Sarandon, William Ragsdale, Amanda Bearse, Roddy McDowall, Stephen Geoffreys

Synopsis: A teenage horror film addict is shocked to discover that his new next-door neighbor is a vampire in this delightful mix of horror and comedy. The problems only grow for young Charley Brewster (William Ragsdale) when he expresses his thoughts about fanged new neighbor Jerry Dandridge (Chris Sarandon Read More

Gobots: Battle of the Rock Lords

Actors: Margot Kidder, Roddy McDowall, Michael Nouri, Telly Savalas

Synopsis: This fast-paced, animated action feature zoomed into theaters with characters developed from a popular TV cartoon series. The GoBots can morph into mechanical contrivances like land rovers or spaceships and are divided between good GoBots and evil ones (called Renegades). As these two factions Read More

The Zany Adventures of Robin Hood

Synopsis: In this made-for-TV spoof, Robin Hood (George Segal) and his merry men must attempt to gather together the necessary ransom money to free King Richard from a nasty Duke. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide Read More

Alice in Wonderland

Actors: Donald O'Connor

Synopsis: This 1982 made-for-TV version of the Lewis Carroll classic Alice in Wonderland features an all-star cast. Such celebrities as Donald O'Connor, Maureen Stapleton and Eve Arden struggle to perform while buried under mounds of makeup and tons of eccentric costuming as Carroll's alternate-world Read More

This Girl for Hire

Synopsis: In this detective drama set in Hollywood, a private investigator uses logic to solve the murder of a famous mystery writer. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Hollywood's Children

Actors: Roddy McDowall

Synopsis: Directed in 1982 by Gene Feldman, this acclaimed documentary examines the emotional price child actors pay for being Hollywood stars. Narrated by Roddy McDowall, who was himself a child star, this program also looks at how well child stars have made the transition to adulthood. The program Read More

Mae West

Actors: Ann Jillian, Roddy McDowall

Synopsis: Ann Jillian plays the title character in this made-for-TV film, based on the facts but with several liberties taken as well. Roddy McDowall takes an interesting turn playing a female impersonator. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide Read More

Evil Under the Sun

Actors: Peter Ustinov, Jane Birkin, Colin Blakely, Nicholas Clay, James Mason

Synopsis: Peter Ustinov makes his second appearance as Belgian detective Hercule Poirot in this adaptation of the popular Agatha Christie mystery. When noted stage star Arlena Marshall (Diana Rigg) is found murdered while visiting a posh island resort, Poirot is called upon to find the culprit, but given Read More

Treachery and Greed on the Planet of the Apes

Synopsis: Treachery and Greed on the Planet of the Apes was cobbled together from two 1974 episodes of the TV series Planet of the Apes, which of course was inspired by the popular movie series of the same name. Ron Harper and James Naughton play two contemporary astronauts who fall into a time warp and are Read More

Class of 1984

Actors: Perry King, Timothy Van Patten, Merrie Lynn Ross, Roddy McDowall, Al Waxman

Synopsis: A music teacher (Perry King) at a tough Los Angeles high school reaches out to his students with the gift of music -- only to find a gang of sadistic punk rockers is actively dissuading new members from joining the orchestra. Not only are the punkers sadistic; they are also led by the nefarious Timothy Van Patten Read More

The Forgotten City of the Planet of the Apes

Synopsis: After 20th Century-Fox's "Planet of the Apes" film series had run its theatrical course, the next logical step seemed to be a TV spin-off. Originally telecast September 13 to December 27, 1974, the TV version of Planet of the Apes stars Ron Harper and James Naughton as Alan Virdon and Pete Burke Read More

Farewell to the Planet of the Apes

Synopsis: Not an entry in the Planet of the Apes theatrical-movie series, Farewell to the Planet of the Apes is made up of two episodes from the spin-off TV series of the same name. Originally telecast from September 13 to December 27, 1974, the Apes TV weekly stars Ron Harper and James Naughton as Read More

The Million Dollar Face

Actors: Gayle Hunnicutt, Lee Grant

Synopsis: The expensive face of the title belongs to Sylvia Kristel, who actually levies a price of $2.5 million upon the fictional cosmetics firm of Glamour Inc. Ms. Kristel's story is but one of the many intrigues within the hallowed halls of Glamour. Tony Curtis stars as the company's CEO, beset with Read More

Life, Liberty, and Pursuit on the Planet of the Apes

The Martian Chronicles

Actors: Rock Hudson

Synopsis: Everyone who tuned into The Martian Chronicles during its three-day run in January of 1980 sincerely hoped that it would be the ne plus ultra of televised sci-fi/fantasy. That it fell short of this goal was not the fault of the actors but of the script, which reduced Ray Bradbury's complex Read More

Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen

Actors: Peter Ustinov, Lee Grant, Angie Dickinson, Richard Hatch, Brian Keith

Synopsis: Peter Ustinov plays the talented detective in San Francisco who attempts, with help/hindrance from his clumsy grandson (Richard Hatch), to solve a murder case in this mystery/comedy. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide Read More

The Memory of Eva Ryker

Actors: Natalie Wood

Synopsis: Donald A. Stanwood's original novel The Memory of Eva Ryker used the Titanic tragedy as its launching pad. This made-for-TV adaptation of Stanwood's book moved the action up some 27 years, motivating its plotline with the torpedoing of an Athenia-type luxury liner in 1939. The film flashes forward Read More

The Return of the King

Actors: Orson Bean

Synopsis: The second of Rankin/Bass' animated TV specials based on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, Return of the King plots the quest to defeat the evil wizard Sauron. Frodo, nephew of The Hobbit protagonist Bilbo Baggins, vows to destroy the Ring, even if it costs him his own life. He carries the Ring to the Read More

Nutcracker Fantasy

Actors: Michael Lee, Melissa Gilbert, Lurene Tuttle, Christopher Lee, Jo Ann Worley

Synopsis: Set to Tchaikovsky's score, this Japanese animated effort chronicles the adventures of a young girl dreaming of a magical land of anthropomorphic mice that are under the spell of a wicked two-headed mouse. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide Read More

Hart to Hart

Actors: Jill St. John, Lionel Stander, Robert Wagner

Synopsis: Originally telecast September 25, 1979, Hart to Hart was the pilot film for a series which officially debuted three days earlier. Robert Wagner and Stephanie Powers play the fabulously wealthy, blissfully happy married couple Jonathan and Jennifer Hart. He's a conglomerate CEO, she's a mystery Read More

The Black Hole

Actors: Maximilian Schell, Anthony Perkins, Robert Forster, Joseph Bottoms, Yvette Mimieux

Synopsis: An ambitious sci-fier from the Disney folks, The Black Hole takes place in the future. A quintet of space travelers stumble across a "black hole." Not wishing to be sucked into the void, the crew prepares to flee, but stops long enough to investigate a mysterious space vessel near the entrance of Read More

Scavenger Hunt

Actors: Richard Benjamin, James Coco, Scatman Crothers, Cloris Leachman, Cleavon Little

Synopsis: When millionaire Vincent Price dies, he leaves a riotous will which amounts to a scavenger hunt, the winner of which receives the entire willed fortune. So 15 potential heirs are sent on a zany quest where they must outrace and outsmart one another to inherit the big bucks. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

The Immigrants

Synopsis: Based on the best-selling novel by Howard Fast, the two-part, four-hour miniseries The Immigrants is the saga of Dan Lavetta (Stephen Macht). The son of an impoverished Italian immigrant family, Dan manages to emerge from the rubble of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake (cunningly re-created via Read More

The Cat from Outer Space

Actors: Ken Berry, Sandy Duncan, Harry Morgan, Roddy McDowall, McLean Stevenson

Synopsis: Zunar J5/90 Doric 4-7, also known as Jake, is an alien cat who crash-lands on earth. He heads off to the nearest scientist to find gold ($120,000 worth!) in order to repair his spaceship. Jake reveals that he can predict the winners in sporting events and soon the military is trying to track him Read More

Circle of Iron

Actors: David Carradine, Jeff Cooper, Roddy McDowall, Eli Wallach, Erica Creer

Synopsis: This symbol-laden drama explores the inner mythology of martial arts practice and is based on a Bruce Lee story idea. The original screenplay was written by Bruce Lee, with help from actor James Coburn and screenwriter Stirling Silliphant. Lee was to take on the four-in-one role of guide in his Read More

Rabbit Test

Actors: Billy Crystal, Joan Prather, Alex Rocco, Doris Roberts

Synopsis: In this, Joan Rivers' first attempt at film direction, a young virgin male (Billy Crystal) is engaged to be married when he finds out he is pregnant! Using the film as a vehicle for her acerbic humor, director Rivers may as well be on stage, for interspersed throughout this questionable plot is an Read More

Laserblast

Actors: Kim Milford, Gianni Russo, Ron Masak, Dennis Burkley

Synopsis: Billy (Kim Milford) has the same problems that many teens have to endure. His mother is inattentive, local cops target him for speeding tickets, his girlfriend's grandfather hates him, and teenaged bullies make fun of his van. Billy finds the keys to his emancipation in the desert, when he Read More

The Thief of Baghdad

Actors: Ian Holm, Roddy McDowall, Peter Ustinov

Synopsis: This made-for-TV fantasy is a tale from the well-known Arabian Nights fable featuring a flying carpet, a prince, a pretty maiden, and a genie. Roddy McDowall, Ian Holm and Peter Ustinov appear in this Middle Eastern adventure. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide Read More

The Rhinemann Exchange

Actors: Stephen Collins, Lauren Hutton, Claude Akins, Vince Edwards, José Ferrer, Larry Hagman

Synopsis: One of four miniseries comprising NBC's Best Sellers anthology, The Rhinemann Exchange was adapted from the Robert Ludlum novel of the same name. Stephen Collins stars as American intelligence officer David Spaulding, who under cover of his musician father's concert tours embarks upon a number of Read More

Sixth and Main

Actors: Leslie Nielsen, Roddy McDowall, Beverly Garland, Leo Penn, Joe Maross

Synopsis: Sixth and Main is the Los Angeles street corner where on any given day you might find itinerant local "character" John Doe (Leslie Nielsen). Elegant authoress Monica (Beverly Garland) discovers that the supposedly derelict Doe has in his possession several manuscripts, all brilliantly written. Read More

Created to Kill

Actors: Rock Hudson, Diane Ladd, Barbara Carrera, Roddy McDowall, Anne Schedeen

Synopsis: In this thriller, a scientist (Rock Hudson) attempts to engineer the perfect woman in a test-tube and ends up not with a beautiful lover, but instead a ruthless killer. The film is also known as Created to Kill. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Flood!

Actors: Barbara Hershey

Synopsis: Having already exhausted the dramatic possibilities of fire with The Towering Inferno, producer Irwin Allen turns to water in the made-for-TV Flood! The film is set in a small community, conveniently (for the purposes of the plot) located near a huge earthen dam. As the flood waters rise and the Read More

Funny Lady

Actors: Barbra Streisand, James Caan, Omar Sharif, Roddy McDowall, Ben Vereen

Synopsis: Funny Lady, the follow-up to the 1968 Funny Girl which made a movie star of Barbra Streisand, picks up the character of Fanny Brice in the 1930s. Although she is a tremendously famous Broadway star, she has suffered from the stock market crash and needs to boost her finances. Even Ziegfeld, who Read More

Mean Johnny Barrows

Actors: Roddy McDowall, Jenny Sherman, Fred Williamson

Synopsis: A Vietnam War veteran (Fred Williamson) is discharged from the Army, and becomes involved with mobsters when he is unable to find a job. The gang uses him on a job when one of the thugs (Roddy McDowall) and his girlfriend (Jenny Sherman) decide to provoke a gang war. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide Read More

The White Seal

Synopsis: Based on the Rudyard Kipling story, this film follows the story of a young white seal who grows up to become the savior of the local seal population when it is threatened by seal hunters. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide Read More

Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry

Actors: Peter Fonda, Susan George, Adam Roarke, Vic Morrow, Kenneth Tobey

Synopsis: Three outlaws hit the road until the road hits back in this supercharged action thriller. Larry (Peter Fonda) is a stock car driver whose reckless nature has caused him a long run of bad luck. Larry and his friend and mechanic Deke (Adam Roarke) need money if they're to get a new car and get back Read More

Planet of the Apes [TV Series]

Actors: Roddy McDowall, Ron Harper, James Naughton, Mark Lenard

The Elevator

Synopsis: An all-star "disaster" flick set in an elevator: is there no limit? This made-for-TVer top-bills James Farentino as a bank robber suffering from claustrophobia. Fleeing from his latest crime, the criminal is forced to take an elevator, populated with the likes of Roddy McDowall, Craig Stevens, Teresa Wright Read More

The Legend of Hell House

Actors: Pamela Franklin, Roddy McDowall, Clive Revill, Gayle Hunnicutt, Roland Culver

Synopsis: Richard Matheson adapted the screenplay of The Legend of Hell House from his own novel. In the tradition of Shirley Jackson's Haunting of Hill House, four people with alleged extrasensory powers are called upon to spend a weekend in a supposedly haunted house, to either prove or disprove the Read More

Mowgli's Brothers

Synopsis: Animator Chuck Jones helmed this tale, adapted from the work of Rudyard Kipling, of a boy raised by wolves. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide Read More

Miracle on 34th Street

Actors: Sebastian Cabot

Synopsis: The 1947 film comedy Miracle on 34th Street starred Edmund Gwenn as a bearded gentleman named Kris Kringle, who was convinced that he was the genuine Santa Claus. The earlier Miracle was good enough as it stood, so why remake it? Still, the full-color 1973 Miracle on 34th Street has the Read More

Arnold

Actors: Wanda Bailey

Synopsis: The Arnold of Arnold, like the Harry of The Trouble With Harry, is stone cold dead from the outset of this film. That doesn't stop Arnold's mistress Stella Stevens from marrying the corpse so as to come into his millions. The trick is to hide the fact that Arnold is indeed stiff as a mackerel. To Read More

Battle for the Planet of the Apes

Actors: Roddy McDowall, Claude Akins, Natalie Trundy, Severn Darden, Lew Ayres, John Huston

Synopsis: The fifth and last of the original series of motion pictures based upon author Pierre Boulle's imaginative novel Monkey Planet, this science fiction film was the least-liked by the series' legion of fans. Roddy McDowall returns as Caesar, the rebellious intelligent chimp of the previous film, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes Read More

The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean

Actors: Alfred G. Bosnos, Fred Brookfield, Karen Carr, Dolores Clark, Margo Epper, Barbara J. Longo, Lee Meza, Paul Newman, Victoria Principal, Anthony Perkins, Ned Beatty, Jacqueline Bisset, Tab Hunter, John Huston

Synopsis: Paul Newman plays the title role in John Huston's surreal, revisionist western as the infamous Texas hanging judge. Upon arriving in the tiny West Texas town of Vinegaroon, Roy Bean draws a moustache on a wanted poster of himself, marches into a saloon, and declares his presence. He is immediately Read More

The Poseidon Adventure

Actors: Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine, Red Buttons, Carol Lynley, Roddy McDowall

Synopsis: The Poseidon, an ocean liner larger than the Queens Elizabeth and Mary combined, is charting its course on New Year's Eve. Just after midnight, Captain Harrison (Leslie Nielsen) spots the mother of all tidal waves. It is the last thing that Harrison and practically everyone Read More

Mission: Impossible: The Puppet

Actors: Peter Graves, Greg Morris, Peter Lupus, Roddy McDowall

Synopsis: After two and a half seasons in its familiar Saturday-evening network berth, Mission:Impossible moved to Fridays on December 22, 1972, with the episode titled "The Puppet." Roddy McDowall guest stars as Leo Ostro, the acting Syndicate boss during the convalescence of his injured brother Paul. To Read More

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes

Actors: Roddy McDowall, Don Murray, Ricardo Montalban, Natalie Trundy, Hari (Harry) Rhodes

Synopsis: The fourth Planet of the Apes film is set in 1991, 20 years since the assassination of talking, time-traveling apes Cornelius and Zira at the end of Escape From the Planet of the Apes. The couple's infant son, Caesar (Roddy McDowall), has grown to adulthood in the care of kindly circus owner Read More

Escape from the Planet of the Apes

Actors: Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter

Synopsis: Escape From the Planet of the Apes is the third in the series of films based upon the Planet of the Apes characters created by novelist Pierre Boulle. At the end of the second film, the centuries-in-the-future world colonized by simians was destroyed, but apes Cornelius (Roddy McDowall) and Zira (Kim Hunter Read More

Ironside: Murder Impromptu

Synopsis: This episode reunites Ironside star Raymond Burr with his former Perry Mason costar Barbara Hale. Chief Ironside (Burr) comes to the aid of Marsha Connell (Hale) when she is implicated in the murder of a member of an improvisational comedy group. The killing takes place during a stage performance Read More

Bedknobs and Broomsticks

Actors: Ian Weighall, Angela Lansbury, David Tomlinson, Roddy McDowall, Sam Jaffe, John Ericson

Synopsis: Bedknobs and Broomsticks was produced several years after Walt Disney's death and released in the fall of 1971. As it turned out, Bedknobs was frequently compared to Mary Poppins -- probably thanks to several striking similarities between the two productions, notably the presence in the cast of David Tomlinson Read More

Terror in the Sky

Synopsis: In this airborne disaster movie, a passenger and a flight attendant are forced to fly a commercial jet when the passengers and crew are incapacitated by food poisoning. Later they are rescued by a courageous ex-combat helicopter pilot who helps them land the giant bird. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Read More

A Taste of Evil

Actors: Barbara Parkins, Bing Russell, Barbara Stanwyck, William Windom

Synopsis: Screenwriter Jimmy Sangster and John Llewellyn Moxey, longtime collaborators in the field of British psychological-horror efforts, once more combined their skills for the American TV movie Taste of Evil. Barbara Parkins plays a young rape victim, recently released from a mental institution. She Read More

What's a Nice Girl Like You..?

Synopsis: In this comedy drama, an ingenious young woman from the Bronx impersonates a socialite so she can con a confused old man out of his money. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Pretty Maids All in a Row

Actors: Rock Hudson, Angie Dickinson, Telly Savalas, John Carson, Roddy McDowall

Synopsis: Ocean View High is an upscale suburban school in an otherwise unidentified community. It's 1971, the point when the sexual revolution started moving into full swing and even a lot of Middle America, at least on the two coasts, admitted the existence of same revolution. It seems like the guys and Read More

The Devil's Widow

Crew: Director

Actors: Peter Hinwood, Oliver Norman

Synopsis: In this interesting horror movie, a pleasure-seeking noblewoman uses contemporary black magic to toy with the young lovers who surround her. The story is also known as The Devil's Widow and The Ballad of Tam-Lin. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Night Gallery [TV Series]

Actors: Tom Bosley, Joan Crawford, Richard Kiley

Synopsis: In the two-hour pilot film for the subsequent TV "occult" anthology, series creator Rod Serling hosts three macabre short stories, introducing each with a framed portrait in a nocturnal art gallery. The first story stars Roddy MacDowall as a covetous nephew who murders his uncle, suffering the Read More

Midas Run

Actors: Richard Crenna, Anne Heywood, Fred Astaire, Ralph Richardson, Adolfo Celi

Synopsis: A disgruntled British secret service officer and an aspiring author turn to crime when they are again passed over for prominent career advancements. John Pedley (Fred Astaire) is the agent who has been passed over for knighthood one too many times for his liking. He proposes a plan to university Read More

Angel, Angel, Down We Go

Actors: Jennifer Jones, Jordan Christopher, Roddy McDowall, Holly Near, Lou Rawls

Synopsis: Tara Nicole (Holly Near) is an 18-year-old girl from a wealthy family. She rebels against her parents by taking up with a rock band lead by Bogart (Jordan Christopher). Singer Lou Rawls and Roddy McDowell make up part of the band, whose members end up seducing the young teen and her mother Astrid Read More

Hello Down There

Actors: Tony Randall, Janet Leigh, Roddy McDowall, Jim Backus, Ken Berry

Synopsis: When irascible boss T.R. Hollister (Jim Backus) threatens to pull the plug on an underwater environmental living project, employee Fred Miller (Tony Randall) and his wife, Vivian (Janet Leigh), take their family down in the deep to live for 30 days. With all the modern conveniences of a home on Read More

Planet of the Apes

Actors: Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, Maurice Evans, James Whitmore

Synopsis: Originally intended as a project for Blake Edwards, the film version of Pierre Boule's semisatiric sci-fi novel came to the screen in 1968 under the directorial guidance of Franklin J. Schaffner. Charlton Heston is George Taylor, one of several astronauts on a long, long space mission whose Read More

Five Card Stud

Actors: Dean Martin, Robert Mitchum, Inger Stevens, Roddy McDowall, Katherine Justice

Synopsis: Dean Martin and Robert Mitchum play deadly adversaries in this curious mixture of the western and mystery genres. During a poker game in Rincon, Colorado, a stranger in the game is lynched for cheating. One of the gamblers, Van Morgan (Dean Martin), tries to prevent the lynching but is rebuffed Read More

The Cool Ones

Actors: Roddy McDowall, Debbie Watson, Gil Peterson, Phil Harris, Robert Coote

Synopsis: This musical comedy pokes fun at the music industry as it tells of the romantic travails of two popular singers thrust together by an ingenious promoter/matchmaker as a publicity stunt. The young male needs to revive his flagging career while the female singer is trying to get her big break; so Read More

Cricket on the Hearth

Actors: Danny Thomas, Marlo Thomas, Roddy McDowall

Synopsis: The Cricket on the Hearth is based on one of Charles Dickens' lesser-known Christmas stories. Bertha, the toymaker's daughter, is the central character. She searches for love and understanding from her father Caleb, who just wants his family to be happy. With the appearance of a good luck cricket Read More

The Invaders, Vol. 2: The Experiment

Synopsis: Roy Thinnes was the star of this 1967-1968 science fiction series, about an Earth poised on the brink of alien takeover. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide Read More

Lautlose Waffen

Actors: Montgomery Clift, Hardy Kruger, Macha Meril, Roddy McDowall, David Opatoshu

Synopsis: Montgomery Clift made his last screen appearance in this French-produced Cold War thriller, completed shortly before his death. American scientist James Bower (Clift) is approached by CIA agent Adam (Roddy McDowall) who wants him to perform an official mission while visiting East Germany. A Read More

Lord Love a Duck

Actors: Roddy McDowall, Tuesday Weld, Lola Albright, Martin West, Ruth Gordon

Synopsis: An intelligent, eccentric high school senior devotes his life to indulging the every whim of the beautiful girl he adores in this quirky, dark-humored comedy. Roddy McDowall plays Alan Musgrave, an odd duck who immediately falls for the school's new student, Barbara Ann Greene (Tuesday Weld). Read More

It!

Actors: Roddy McDowall, Jill Haworth, Paul Maxwell, Aubrey Richards, Ernest Clark

Synopsis: This silly twist on the silent classic Der Golem stars Roddy McDowall as Arthur Pimm, assistant museum curator and would-be Norman Bates who, among other things, preserves the body of his late mother in his home. When Pimm and museum director Grove (Ernest Clark) discover a grotesque statue left Read More

The Adventures of Bullwhip Griffin

Actors: Roddy McDowall, Suzanne Pleshette, Karl Malden, Harry Guardino, Bryan Russell, Richard Haydn

Synopsis: This rambunctious Disney comedy was based on the novel By the Great Horn Spoon by Sid Fleischman. Roddy McDowall plays Griffin, the very proper butler of Bostonian Bryan Russell. When Russell runs off to California during the 1849 gold rush, Griffin dutifully tags along. Master and butler team up Read More

The Third Day

Actors: George Peppard, Elizabeth Ashley, Roddy McDowall, Arthur O'Connell, Mona Washbourne

Synopsis: This quirky melodrama opens with an automobile crash. The driver, Steve Mallory (George Peppard), comes out of unconsciousness with amnesia. As his memory slowly returns, he learns that he is a wealthy manufacturer of table china. His wife Alexandria (Elizabeth Ashley) wants to leave him, and his Read More

Inside Daisy Clover

Actors: Natalie Wood, Christopher Plummer, Robert Redford, Roddy McDowall, Ruth Gordon

Synopsis: Daisy Clover (Natalie Wood) goes from teenage girl to movie star practically overnight when her demented mother enters her voice in a talent-search contest. From a broken-down carnival on the Santa Monica Pier, in no time at all she is attending glamorous Hollywood parties. But Daisy soon learns Read More

The Greatest Story Ever Told

Actors: Max von Sydow, Dorothy McGuire, Robert Loggia, Claude Rains, José Ferrer, Charlton Heston

Synopsis: Filmmaker George Stevens chose Monument Valley, Utah for his exterior sequences in The Greatest Story Ever Told, this ($20 million) adaptation of Fulton Oursler's best-selling book. The "Greatest Story" is, of course, the life of Jesus Christ, played herein by Max Von Sydow. The large supporting Read More

The Loved One

Actors: Robert Morse, Anjanette Comer, Jonathan Winters, Rod Steiger, James Coburn, Dana Andrews

Synopsis: The satire in Evelyn Waugh's darkly comic novel The Loved One was originally double-edged. The book was not only an attack on the Southern California funeral industry but also a lampoon of Hollywood's "British colony," those clannish, cricket-playing English actors of years gone by who bemoaned Read More

That Darn Cat

Actors: Hayley Mills, Dean Jones, Dorothy Provine, Roddy McDowall, Neville Brand

Synopsis: Though overlong even for a Hayley Mills vehicle, That Darn Cat is an expert blend of laughs and suspense. The eponymous feline is D.C., a Siamese belonging to sisters Hayley Mills and Dorothy Provine. One evening, D.C. comes flouncing home with a lady's wristwatch attached to her neck. The watch Read More

The Alfred Hitchcock Hour: The Gentleman Caller

Actors: Roddy McDowall, Ruth McDevitt, Diane Sayer, Naomi Stevens, Juanita Moore

Synopsis: Elderly eccentric Emmy Rice (Ruth McDevitt) is charmed by the attentions of her much-younger gentleman caller, a fellow named Gerald Musgrove (Roddy McDowall). This is quite agreeable to Musgrove, a safecracker who has hidden 100,000 dollars in stolen money in Emmy's voluminous collection of old Read More

Combat!: The Long Walk

Synopsis: Marching into an open field, Saunders (Vic Morrow) and his men are greeted with a barrage of machine-gun fire by a wounded GI named Murfree (Roddy McDowall). Once he has downed his weapon, Murfree explains that he is on his guard against Nazi spies who, disguised as Americans, have infiltrated the Read More

The Fatal Mistake

Synopsis: Set in England, The Fatal Mistake stars Arthur Hill as a respectable accountant and family man. Every month on the dot, Hill is visited by his "friend" Roddy McDowell, who graciously bestows gifts upon Hill's wife and children, then retires with his host into the den. Here McDowell collects his Read More

The Alfred Hitchcock Hour: See the Monkey Dance

Actors: Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., Roddy McDowall, Patricia Medina, George Pelling, Shari Lee Bernath

Synopsis: While traveling by train to a clandestine meeting with his married mistress, London stockbroker George (Roddy McDowall) befriends another passenger (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.). It soon develops that the other fellow is traveling to London for a rendezvous with his own married girlfriend -- and this Read More

Shock Treatment

Actors: Stuart Whitman, Carol Lynley, Lauren Bacall, Roddy McDowall, Olive Deering

Synopsis: In this offbeat melodrama, a crazed gardener is relegated to a mental hospital after he goes berserk and beheads his wealthy boss. The scuttlebutt in the courtroom is that the killer has stolen over a million dollars from his former employer and has hidden it on the estate. A professional actor Read More

Cleopatra

Actors: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Rex Harrison, Roddy McDowall, Pamela Brown, George Cole, Martin Landau

Synopsis: In 1963, this colossal and opulent $60 million spectacular was epic in every sense of the word -- an epic investment, an epic in the annals of Hollywood gossip, and, ultimately, an epic flop that nearly dragged 20th Century Fox down the Nile along with Cleopatra's barge. Handsomely mounted by Joseph L. Mankiewicz Read More

The Longest Day

Actors: John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, Henry Fonda, Robert Ryan, Rod Steiger, Richard Todd

Synopsis: The Longest Day is a mammoth, all-star re-creation of the D-Day invasion, personally orchestrated by Darryl F. Zanuck. Whenever possible, the original locations were utilized, and an all-star international cast impersonates the people involved, from high-ranking officials to ordinary GIs. Each Read More

The Power and the Glory

The Subterraneans

Actors: Leslie Caron, George Peppard, Janice Rule, Roddy McDowall, Anne Seymour

Synopsis: Based rather loosely on a novel by Jack Kerouac, The Subterraneans concerns a writer (played by George Peppard) who moves to San Francisco and falls in with a crowd of beatniks after falling in love with a French girl (Leslie Caron). The woman was black, not French, in Kerouac's novel, only the Read More

The Tempest

Synopsis: William Shakespeare's last completed play The Tempest was pared down to 90 minutes for this full-color TV adaptation. Maurice Evans stars as Prospero, the former Duke of Milan, who was usurped by his brother Antonio (William H. Bassett) and exiled to an enchanted island. Living in seclusion with Read More

The Twilight Zone: People are Alike All Over

Actors: Roddy McDowall, Paul Comi, Susan Oliver, Byron Morrow, Vic Perrin

Synopsis: Having scoffed at his colleague Warren Marcusson's (Paul Comi) assertion that "People are alike all over the universe," Astronaut Sam Conrad (Roddy McDowall) is given the opportunity to find out if Marcusson was telling the truth when his spaceship crash-lands on Mars. Though Marcusson is killed Read More

Midnight Lace

Actors: Doris Day, Rex Harrison, John Gavin, Myrna Loy, Roddy McDowall

Synopsis: Kit (Doris Day), an American married to wealthy London businessman Tony Preston (Rex Harrison) becomes the terrified victim of a mysterious stalker, who she hears but can never see. She is threatened by the eerie, high-pitched voice as she walks in the thick London fog. She then begins receiving Read More

Playhouse 90: Heart of Darkness

The Steel Fist

Actors: Roddy McDowall, Kristine Miller, Harry Lauter, Rand Brooks, Byron Foulger

Synopsis: Steel Fist was produced by William F. Broidy and Wesley Barry, the same team responsible for TV's Wild Bill Hickok series. Roddy McDowall stars as Erik, an idealistic young student in an unnamed Iron Curtain country. Pursued by the communist police for speaking his views, Erik is sheltered by the Read More

Hill Number One

Synopsis: Filmed in color, the 60-minute Hill Number One was an episode of the TV religious anthology Family Theatre. Father Patrick Peyton hosts this star-studded Easter special, wherein the story of the Resurrection is told in flashback form at a contemporary family gathering. As always, Fr. Peyton has Read More

Everybody's Dancin'

Actors: Spade Cooley, Richard Lane, Hal Derwin

Synopsis: By the standards of low-budget Lippert Productions, Everybody's Dancin' is an "A" picture. Country-western favorite Spade Cooley (who also co-produced and co-scripted) heads the enormous cast of this innocuous musical comedy. Setting the plot in motion is fast-talking Dick Lane, playing a phony Read More

Big Timber

Actors: Roddy McDowall, Jeff Donnell, Lyn Thomas, Gordon Jones, Tom Greenway

Synopsis: Big Timber was another in a series of medium-budget dramas co-produced by actor Roddy McDowall for Monogram. McDowall himself stars as Jimmy, a novice tree surgeon who takes a manual-labor job at a logging camp. Jimmy develops into a fairly competent logger, but his efforts are sabotaged by a Read More

Killer Shark

Actors: Roddy McDowall, Laurette Luez, Roland Winters, Edward Norris, Rick Vallin

Synopsis: Killer Shark was another of actor Roddy McDowall's self-produced film efforts for Monogram release. McDowall stars as Ted, the son of fisherman White (Roland Winters). Convinced that his college-bred son is too namby-pamby for the demands of his profession, White nonetheless allows Ted to Read More

Tuna Clipper

Actors: Roddy McDowall, Elena Verdugo, Roland Winters, Rick Vallin, Dickie Moore

Synopsis: Roddy McDowall was both star and co-producer of the compact actioner Tuna Clipper. Hoping to become a lawyer, Alec (Roddy McDowall) becomes a tuna fisherman in order to pay a debt. This turn of events puts Alec on the outs with his taciturn family. Eventually, the lad proves himself on all fronts Read More

Black Midnight

Actors: Roddy McDowall, Damian O'Flynn, Kirby Grant, Gordon Jones, Rand Brooks

Synopsis: Black Midnight was the fourth of six Monogram films co-produced by actor Roddy McDowall. The film stars McDowall as Scott Jordan, whose mission in life is to train a wild stallion named Black Midnight. Subplots include a romance between Jordan and pretty Cindy Baxter (Lynn Thomas), and the Read More

Macbeth

Actors: Orson Welles, Jeanette Nolan, Dan O'Herlihy, Roddy McDowall, Edgar Barrier

Synopsis: Shakespeare's tragic tale of the rise and fall of ambitious 12th-century Scottish warrior MacBeth has proven irresistible to filmmakers. Orson Welles was so anxious to transfer the play to the screen that he acceded to the demands of his parent studio, Republic pictures, that he shoot his version Read More

Rocky

Synopsis: In this children's move, a teenager and his loyal dog wander the wild West. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Kidnapped

Actors: Roddy McDowall, Sue England, Dan O'Herlihy, Roland Winters, Jeff Corey

Synopsis: For his first independent production, former child star Roddy McDowall selected the tried-and-true Robert Louis Stevenson classic Kidnapped. McDowall reserves the plum role of David Balfour for himself, while Dan O'Herlihy, McDowall's costar in Orson Welles' MacBeth, is cast as Scottish patriot Read More

Holiday in Mexico

Actors: Linda Christian, Ann Codee, Xavier Cugat, Hugo Haas

Synopsis: Too long by at least two reels, Holiday in Mexico is nevertheless one of the more enjoyable MGM Technicolor musicals of the 1940s. Walter Pigeon is top billed as Jeffrey Evans, American ambassador to Mexico. Captivated by the charms of her adopted homeland, Evans' impulsive daughter Christine Read More

Molly and Me

Actors: Gracie Fields, Monty Woolley, Roddy McDowall, Reginald Gardiner, Natalie Schafer

Synopsis: A servant with no experience ends up teaching the master of the house a thing or two in this comedy. Molly Barry (Gracie Fields) is a struggling actress who is short on money and needs paying work. When she learns that John Graham (Monty Woolley), a wealthy and respected former politician, needs a Read More

Thunderhead, Son of Flicka

Actors: Roddy McDowall, Preston S. Foster, Rita Johnson, Diana Hale, James Bell

Synopsis: This sequel to 1943's My Friend Flicka stars Roddy McDowell, recreating his role in the earlier film. The son of a horse rancher (Preston S. Foster), McDowell takes it upon himself to train Thunderhead, a white colt with the same rebellious streak that distinguished its mother (Flicka). Read More

The White Cliffs of Dover

Actors: Irene Dunne, Alan Marshal, Frank Morgan, Ralph Morgan, Roddy McDowall, Van Johnson

Synopsis: The White Cliffs of Dover is one of those overlong MGM wartime films that everyone seems to have seen a part of, but no one can remember the film as a sum total. Based on a poem by Alice Duer Miller, the story chronicles the trials and tribulations of one courageous woman through two world wars. Read More

The Keys of the Kingdom

Actors: Gregory Peck, Thomas Mitchell, Vincent Price, Rosa Stradner, Roddy McDowall, Edmund Gwenn

Synopsis: Based on the novel by A.J. Cronin, The Keys of the Kingdom was the first big-budget effort of movie-newcomer Gregory Peck. This is the 137-minute chronicle of a Scottish priest (Peck), who is assigned a mission in China. Never very focused in his life or work, the priest finds plenty to keep his Read More

My Friend Flicka

Actors: Roddy McDowall, Preston S. Foster, Rita Johnson, Jeff Corey, James Bell

Synopsis: An utterly enchanting Technicolor filmization of Mary O'Hara's novel, My Friend Flicka is the story of a beautiful colt and the boy (Roddy McDowell) who loves her. The boy's rancher father (Preston S. Foster) isn't keen on the horse that his son chooses to train: Flicka, the offspring of a Read More

Lassie Come Home

Actors: Roddy McDowall, Donald Crisp, Dame May Whitty, Edmund Gwenn, Elsa Lanchester, Nigel Bruce

Synopsis: Female dogs tend to shed while in heat; this is why all the collies who've played doggy heroine Lassie in the movies have actually been well-disguised males. A magnificent animal named Pal was the screen's first Lassie in 1943's Lassie Come Home. Set in Yorkshire during the first World War, the Read More

The Pied Piper

Actors: Monty Woolley, Anne Baxter, Roddy McDowall, Otto Preminger, Peggy Ann Garner, J. Carrol Naish

Synopsis: Monty Woolley plays an irascible Englishman who insists that he dislikes children. While on a vacation in France, the Nazis invade the country. Reluctantly, Woolley agrees to transport several French children into England. As the flight to freedom becomes more treacherous, Woolley grows fonder of Read More

Son of Fury

Actors: Tyrone Power, Gene Tierney, George Sanders, Frances Farmer, Roddy McDowall

Synopsis: This period swashbuckler film is based on the adventure novel Benjamin Blake by Edison Marshall, who also wrote The Vikings (1958). When his brother dies, scheming Arthur Blake (George Sanders) kidnaps his own nephew, Benjamin (played as a youth by Roddy McDowall and as an adult by Tyrone Power). Read More

On the Sunny Side

Actors: Roddy McDowall, Jane Darwell, Stanley Clements, Katherine Alexander, Donald Douglas

Synopsis: Roddy McDowall stars Hugh Aylesworth, as a well-bred English youth who is evacuated to America during the London blitz. Hugh moves into the home of Mr. and Mrs. Andrews (Don Douglas and Katherine Alexander), both of whom are charmed by their little guest's impeccable manners. Less charmed is the Read More

This England

Actors: Emlyn Williams, John Clements, Constance Cummings, Frank Pettingell, Esmond Knight

Synopsis: The pageantlike This England was designed by the Anglo-American film corporation to boost the morale of the war-besieged island nation. The story unfolds in the ancient British community of Claverly Village, which has already weathered serveral centuries of political upheavals, both foreign and Read More

You Will Remember

Actors: Emlyn Williams, Dorothy Hyson, Nicholas Phipps, Gertrude Musgrove

Synopsis: You Will Remember is based on the life of popular English composer Leslie Stuart (born Thomas Barrett in 1864), here played by Robert Morley. The film traces Stuart's rise to fame after the publication of his first song, follows him through his glory days in the early 1900s, then recounts his fall Read More

Confirm or Deny

Actors: Don Ameche, Joan Bennett, Roddy McDowall, John Loder, Raymond Walburn

Synopsis: Don Ameche, an American news bureau chief stationed in London, is frustrated by the British government's censorship of his wildly speculative dispatches to the United States. Joan Bennett is the government Teletype operator assigned to make sure that Ameche doesn't send out any story that hasn't Read More

How Green Was My Valley

Actors: Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O'Hara, Donald Crisp, Roddy McDowall, Barry Fitzgerald, Anna Lee

Synopsis: Spanning 50 years, director John Ford's How Green Was My Valley revolves around the life of the Morgans, a Welsh mining family, as told through the eyes of its youngest child Huw (Roddy McDowall). Over the years, the family struggles to survive through unionization, strikes, and child abuse. As Read More

Man Hunt

Actors: Walter Pidgeon, Joan Bennett, George Sanders, John Carradine, Roddy McDowall

Synopsis: A hunter finds himself in a world of danger when he decides to stalk Adolf Hitler in this taut WWII thriller. Capt. Thorndike (Walter Pidgeon) is an expert big-game hunter from England. While hunting in Bavaria, he happens upon Hitler's Berchtesgaden estate and spots the Fuhrer; he has his rifle Read More

Saloon Bar

Actors: Gordon Harker, Elizabeth Allan, Mervyn Johns, Joyce Barbour, Anna Konstam

Synopsis: Director Walter Forde, a past master at blending mystery, melodrama and comedy (vide The Ghost Train and Bulldog Jack), is at his best with Saloon Bar. Most of the action takes place during one busy evening in an English pub, with a rich variety of believable comic characters weaving in and out of Read More

The Outsider

Actors: Mary Maguire, George Sanders, Barbara Blair, Peter Murray Hill, Frederick Leister

Synopsis: The Outsider was a remake of the 1931 British film of the same name; both films were based on a popular play by Dorothy Brandon. George Sanders, on leave from Hollywood service, plays an osteopath accused of being a fraud. His talents are put to the test when he treats the crippled daughter (Mary Maguire Read More

Murder Will Out

Just William

Synopsis: A mischievous urchin enlists the aide of his buddies to help get his father elected to the city council. Unfortunately, the children find themselves accidently involved in helping two jewel thieves escape. They feel bad about this, and so, to redeem themselves, begin investigating a rival Read More

Dead Man's Shoes

Actors: Leslie Banks, Joan Marion, Geoffrey Atkins, Wilfred Lawson, Judy Kelly

Synopsis: A case of mistaken identity is the basis for this drama. The trouble begins when a rich entrepreneur is accused of being the notorious thief, Jean Pelletier, who performed his infamous robberies in the years preceding the war. A court battle ensues. The industrialist states that he suffered Read More

Poison Pen

Actors: Flora Robson, Reginald Tate, Ann Todd, Geoffrey Toone, Athole Stewart, Robert Newton

Synopsis: In this psychological drama set in a small English village, the villagers become hysterical after a series of damning anonymous letters are posted accusing different residents of scandalous acts. The townsfolk are soon so panicked that murder and suicide ensue until the police hire an expert to Read More

Scruffy

Synopsis: This children's tearjerker tells the tender story of an orphan boy and his beloved dog. The trouble begins when a rich woman with an aversion to canines adopts the boy, but refuses to let the dog live with them. The boy is utterly bored without his playful pooch and so runs away. He and his furry Read More

John Halifax, Gentleman

Synopsis: Set in the 18th century, this melodramatic British costume drama offers the rags-to-riches tale of an honest, ethical man. A young Roddy McDowall plays a bit part in the story. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

I See Ice

Actors: George Formby, Kay Walsh, Betty Stockfeld, Garry Marsh

Synopsis: Toothy, ukelele-plucking British comedian dominates the proceedings in I See Ice. The nonsensical story concerns the misadventures of a prop man (George Formby) for a travelling ice-skating troupe. Inventing a new sort of candid camera in his spare time, our hero gets into a passel of trouble when Read More

The Yellow Sands

Actors: Marie Tempest, Belle Chrystal, Wilfred Lawson, Robert Newton, Patrick Barr

Synopsis: In this comedy, an aged spinster leaves her communist nephew $20,000. Before she died, he and she constantly argued about her decadent capitalistic ways, but now that he has her fortune, he begins singing a different tune. At first he decides to give his nation's unemployed an equal share of the Read More

Hey! Hey! USA!

Actors: Will Hay, Edgar Kennedy, David Burns, Fred Duprez

Synopsis: This British comedy pokes fun at Chicago gangsters as it chronicles the rivalry between to gangs battling it out aboard an ocean liner over the kidnapping of a millionaire's son. The gangs are thwarted by a porter, an ex-teacher. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Murder in the Family

Synopsis: In this mystery, a nephew is accused of murdering his aunt who had just refused to loan him some money. Unfortunately, he is not the real culprit. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More