Fury at Showdown

An astounding paranoid fantasy in which a gunfighter is ostracized and nearly lynched for drawing on a man in self-defense, because the dead man’s brother is a skillful man at manipulating the citizens of Showdown Creek and Buckhorn and Gunstock (he’s a lawyer and holds deeds), “not a town in a thousand miles” hasn’t heard of the gunfighter, who runs a cattle ranch with his brother, and the note is due.

Only the banker in Showdown Creek knows the truth of all these dealings. The railroad’s coming through, a lucrative contract for beef can be had. The lawyer hires a paid killer as bodyguard.

 

Wine Is a Traitor
The Fugitive

The vintner’s son has a scheme for eliminating labor troubles, Kimble is unfortunately “a witness who cannot be called.”

Admirably tense, superbly fragile surface direction on a deep bass of violence with a top note of clarity, and a great score by Pete Rugolo.

 

The Conscience of the King
Star Trek

The Macbeth and Hamlet’s Ghost of a traveling company of interstellar players once slew half his people under another name, and “would have been a hero if the supply ship hadn’t arrived”.

Anyway, Kirk suspects this as one of the few remaining eyewitnesses. Another dies, a third is poisoned.

Lady Macbeth is the actor’s daughter, Lenore.

Oswald draws upon all his skills to create his Shakespearean (Arnold Moss) in space and the mighty maniac (Barbara Anderson) behind the prop throne. He is especially good with control areas, and lends an air of color abstraction (red or blue) to medium close-ups in champ contre champ.

 

The Second Time Around
It Takes a Thief

The counterfeiting plot against the U.S. has failed, “economic warfare” now continues with a vault full of gold to buy American securities.

The entry into this new plan is an administered test, Eric “The Red” Redman (Adolfo Celi) is obliged to kill Alexander and Alister Mundy to prove his worth. After all, they did in the counterfeiting.

The gold simply vanishes at Redman’s private gambling club in Geneva, he is, as the saying goes, “liquidated” by his own side.

Homage to The Pink Panther (is Alister Le Panthère, or is Wally Powers?).