THE SOUND AND THE FURY, based on William Faulkner’s novel, focused on a family of Southern aristocrats who are trying to deal with the dissolution of their clan and the loss of its reputation, faith, fortunes and respect. In the small Southern town of Jefferson, Mississippi, seventeen-year-old “Quentin Compson” (Joanne Woodward)
Based on Faulkner . . . Well, sort of. Faulkner's Quentin is a boy, which Joanne Woodward, aged nearly 30, was not. Nevertheless, the film did receive some favorable notices in its own right.
Inspired by the scriptural tale, THE STORY OF RUTH finds Moabitess priestess “Ruth” (Elana Eden) drawn both to a Judean man (Tom Tryon) and to his talk of a forgiving God. After tragedy strikes, she accompanies her mother-in-law “Naomi” (Peggy Wood) home to Bethlehem, along the way meeting “Boaz” (Stuart Whitman), a brash, prosperous farmer and community leader.
Stuart Whitman and Elana Eden in THE STORY OF RUTH
Stephen Boyd was originally cast as Boaz, but after he pulled out of the project, Stuart Whitman was cast in his first lead role. The role of Ruth was intended for Susan Strasberg - who was tested for the part - but the studio decided to cast Elana Eden when they saw her screen test for THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK (1959) and were stunned by her beauty and talent. Norman Corwin directed the 1960 film. Franz Waxman’s score was first released on a gray market disc from Tsunami in 1995. A legitimate and expanded release came from Varese Sarabande in 2003.
Seven different motion picture producers fought over the rights to the title MURDER, INC. until an arbitration committee of the MPAA finally awarded it to producer Burt Balaban's Princess Production Corp. In the 1960 gangland drama, Stuart Whitman stars as down-and-out singer “Joey Collins,” an old crony of “Walter Sage” (Morey Amsterdam), who owes money to “Abe Reles” (Peter Falk).
Peter Falk, May Britt, and Stuart Whitman in MURDER, INC
Stuart Rosenberg was originally hired to direct the movie. Because of an impending Screen Actors Guild strike, Rosenburg turned the direction over to producer Balaban, who then shot around the clock in an effort to finish before the strike began. The strike lasted from 7 March--18 April 1960. Filming was completed in late March using non-SAG "doubles" because of the strike. Frank DeVol's score was released on a Canadian American Records LP, which was re-issued on CD by the gray market Jazz In the Movies label in 2014.
In THE MARK, Stuart Whitman plays an American named “Jim Fuller,” who has been recently released from prison. His psychiatrist (Rod Steiger), his boss (Donald Wolfit), and the local police are the only people that know the nature of Whitman's crime: He pled guilty to child seduction with intent to assault. Although he has been deemed cured, Fuller struggles to fit into society and lead a "normal" existence. His daily challenges are complicated by a disturbingly maternal landlady (Brenda de Banzie) and a mutual attraction with a co-worker named “Ruth” (Maria Schell).
Maria Schell and Stuart Whitman in THE MARK
The lead role was originally intended for Richard Burton, who had to drop out because of a stage commitment. Although set in Britain, the picture was filmed in Dun Laoghaire and Ardmore Studios outside Dublin due to the controversial subject matter.
Stuart Whitman received his only Oscar nomination for his performance in THE MARK. His Best Actor Oscar nominated performance was the only one in the category not in a Best Picture nominee that year. Whitman’s competition included co-star Maria Schell’s brother Maximillian Schell, for his role in JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG. Schell won, but Maria Schell had told Whitman, " I don't know who to vote for!".
Guy Green directed the 1961 film. Richard Rodney Bennett’s score has not had a release.
Early in the 13th century, young Francis Bernardone (Bradford Dillman), the pleasure-seeking son of an Assisi cloth merchant, becomes increasingly aware of the emptiness of his life. Hoping to find some meaning for his existence, he answers the call of Pope Innocent III (Finlay Currie) and joins the army being formed to liberate Sicily for King Frederick. Accompanying him is “Paolo de Vandria” (Stuart Whitman), an impoverished nobleman and a close friend. FRANCIS OF ASSISI tells the story of how Bernardone ultimately renounces a promising army career in favor of a monastic life and starts his own religious order, sanctioned by the Pope.
Michael Curtiz directed the 1961 release. A budget of $2.8 - $4.0 million was cited in various contemporary sources published around the time of filming; however, studio heads denied these reports, insisting that the film cost only $1.9 million. The film grossed $5.1 million in the U.S.
Mario Nascimbene’s score was released on a 20th Century Fox LP. CD releases (about 4 minutes shorter than the LP) came from Legend (1994) and DRG (1997). A [i[Daily Variety item claimed that Bradford Dillman would record vocals for two original songs with a “13th century flavor,” written by Ken Darby for the film, but that seems not to have happened. The 25 January 1961 Variety later reported that FRANCIS OF ASSISI’s soundtrack would be the first to feature Gregorian chant music.
Two years after the film was released, Dolores Hart, who played Clare Scefi (a.k.a. Saint Clare of Assisi), left acting to become a nun at the Abbey of Regina Laudis monastery in Connecticut.
Texas Ranger “Jake Cutter” (John Wayne) arrests gambler “Paul Regret” (Stuart Whitman), but soon finds himself teamed with his prisoner in an undercover effort to defeat a band of renegade arms merchants and thieves known as THE COMANCHEROS. After helping some ranchers ward off an Indian attack, the two men reach the Comancheros' hideout, where Paul encounters “Pilar” (Ina Balin), an adventuress he knew and loved in Galveston.
Filmmaker George Stevens optioned Paul Wellman’s 1952 novel, The Comancheros, sometime before late September 1957. Stevens had recently forbidden actor Marlon Brando from using the title Comanchero on another project. Although Stevens was set to produce and direct, he stepped down from the project after Twentieth Century-Fox offered him a co-production and directing deal on THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD, in exchange for rights to THE COMANCHEROS. Twentieth Century-Fox also paid Stevens $300,000 for the property.
When the project moved to Twentieth Century-Fox, David Weisbart was brought on as producer, and novelist Clair Huffaker was hired to write the screenplay. The Paul Regret character was the lead in the novel, and the Jake Cutter character was amplified for the film version. The following year, it was announced that Gary Cooper would star as part of a newly signed three-picture deal with Fox. The film was set to begin production in January 1961. Robert Wagner was under consideration to co-star with Cooper. Meanwhile, in late 1960, David Weisbart left Fox after completing his five-year producing deal there, and was replaced by producer Charles Brackett. John Wayne and Charlton Heston were subsequently named as co-stars. At the time, Douglas Heyes was attached to make his feature film directorial debut. Heyes was also said to be revising Huffaker’s script. By April 1961, Heyes had been replaced by veteran director Michael Curtiz.
Charlton Heston, who was set to play “Paul Regret,” was replaced by Tom Tryon. Tryon was then forced off the project due to a previous commitment to Walt Disney Pictures’ MOON PILOT (1962). Tryon’s role went to Stuart Whitman. George Sherman replaced Charles Brackett as producer.
John Wayne, Ina Balin, and Stuart Whitman in THE COMANCHEROS
During much of the shooting, director Michael Curtiz was seriously ill (he died of cancer shortly after the film's release). On the days when Curtiz was too ill to work, John Wayne took over direction of the film, and when it was completed, he told the studio that he did not want credit as co-director, and insisted that Curtiz's name alone appear as director.
Two months after filming was completed, a 6 October 1961 Daily Variety item noted that composer Elmer Bernstein finished scoring the picture that day. A 26 June 1961 Daily Variety item previously stated that Harry Harris, a former songwriter for the Twentieth Century-Fox music department who left his post in late June 1961, wrote an original song for the film. However, there is no indication that such a song was written. Someone named T. Franks wrote a title song for the film that was recorded by Claude King. Although, it was not used in the film, King released it as a single on Columbia, where it was labeled as being “Inspired by” the film.
Elmer Bernstein’s score received its first release when Bernstein re-recorded excerpts for a 1985 Varese Sarabande John Wayne-themed LP. The original score was finally released by Film Score Monthly in 1999. Kritzerland re-released the original score in 2013.
Following its 1 November 1961 release in New York City, the picture was said to be “doing better than many Fox [pictures] in many months,” according to a Variety article, which listed THE COMANCHEROS as the eighth-highest grossing picture “in key cities covered by Variety.” Ultimately, the film grossed $7 million, placing it in the top 35 films of 1961.
In CONVICTS 4, after his death sentence is commuted to life in prison, “John Resko” (Ben Gazzara) is transferred from Sing-Sing to Dannemora Prison where, with the help of a humane prison guard (Stuart Whitman), he becomes a rehabilitated man and a successful painter.
Stuart Whitman in CONVICTS 4
Kaufman-Lubin Productions was formed by screenwriter Millard Kaufman and former Music Corporation of America (MCA) executive A. Ronald Lubin. Kaufman and Lubin scouted locations at San Quentin State Prison in San Quentin, CA, and sought permission for the company to film inside the prison walls.
It took a year to secure permission from the state to film inside the prison. The plotline, which spanned the 1930s and 1940s, was intended to demonstrate improvements to living conditions at the facility. Several sequences were reportedly based on the producers’ visits to the prison, including actual conversations involving inmates and guards. One thousand prisoners were expected to appear as background actors, along with two guards who were given speaking roles. Instead of cash, prisoners were paid with cigarettes, which they used as barter. The warden instituted a “cigarette bank” because the prison economy “would be threatened” by the influx of more than 500,000 cigarettes at one time.
Dalton Trumbo wrote and directed the 1962 release. After filming was completed, co-star Sammy Davis Jr. asked for and received permission to put on a show for the inmates. The warden set two conditions: no racial jokes (which could start a riot) and no sex jokes (for obvious reasons). Four thousand inmates attended the show, Davis told no racial or sex jokes, and the show went off without trouble.
The 6 February 1962 edition of Variety identified Lennie Adelson and Leonard Rosenman as the composers of the title song, “Johnny’s Blues.” It was performed by Clarence “Big” Miller. Rosenman began recording his score on 14 February 1962, with a thirty-five-piece orchestra featuring Shelley Manne, Joe Mondragon, Al Hendrickson, Joe Maine, Plas Johnson, Chuck Gentry, Harry Klee, Abe Most, Jack Sheldon, Uan Rasey, Al Porcino, Frank Rossolino, Dick Nash, Dick Leith, and Vince De Rosa. The score has not had a release.
The term THE LONGEST DAY was originally coined by German Field Marshall Erwin Rommel. Realizing that the first twenty-four hours of the Allied invasion of France would determine the war’s outcome, Rommel predicted it would be “the longest day” for both sides of the conflict.
In 1960, French producer Raoul J. Lévy acquired motion picture rights for journalist Cornelius Ryan’s 1959 book, The Longest Day: June 6 1944, detailing the events of “D-Day,” the Allied invasion of Normandy, France. The project remained in limbo for several months until December 1960, when Lévy sold the film rights to producer Darryl F. Zanuck for $175,000. Zanuck claimed that he took over the project after convincing Lévy that it would be too costly.
Stuart Whitman in THE LONGEST DAY
Zanuck planned location shooting in England, France, Germany, and the U.S., to be directed by a native of each country. As it turned out, Hungarian-born Andrew Marton directed the scenes involving Americans, Englishman Ken Annakin those with the British, Austrian Bernhard Wicki the German scenes, and German Gerd Oswald did the parachute drop in France. Zanuck augmented his production duties by acting as “overall coordinator of direction.” Zanuck also personally directed several interior scenes.
In the 16 August 1961 Los Angeles Times, columnist Philip K. Scheuer reported the casting of “rock ’n’ roll crooners” Fabian, Tommy Sands, and Paul Anka as U.S. Army Rangers. Anka also wrote the film’s theme song. Zanuck refused to cast actor Audie Murphy, a bona fide war hero, because it was common knowledge that Murphy was in Anzio, Italy, on D-Day. The film would advertise that it featured “43 International Stars” playing the major roles, broken into American, British, French, and German contingents. In the American contingent, John Wayne was the top-billed star, playing “Lt. Col. Benjamin Vandervoort,” the paratrooper commander who shatters his leg upon landing and commandeers a wagon for transportation. Stuart Whitman appeared as “Lieutenant Sheen,” one of the paratroopers under Wayne’s command.
Stuart Whitman and John Wayne in THE LONGEST DAY
Although the U.S. Department of Defense had promised Zanuck 700 European-based American soldiers for background actors, recent tensions between the U.S. and East Germany forced military leaders to reconsider their commitment. The issue arose after California Congressman Bob Wilson demanded an explanation for transferring the troops from Germany to France to appear in the film. The original deal for 700 was reportedly criticized by members of the U.S. Congress due to Zanuck’s friendship with General Lauris Norstad, the “supreme allied commander in Europe.” However, the simulated amphibious operation was considered by the Department of Defense to be an excellent training exercise. Zanuck was expected to cover the expense of transporting the German-based troops to and from La Rochelle, France. An anonymous entertainment executive complained to the 12 November 1961 New York Times that the reduced presence of American soldiers on screen only served to perpetuate the “fallacy” that British troops were responsible for the Allied victory on D-Day. Great Britain reportedly supplied approximately 500 troops to the production, compared to the 250 provided by the U.S.
John Wayne and Stuart Whitman play chess on the set of THE LONGEST DAY, as Steve Forrest looks on.
Zanuck explained that the film’s $10 million budget was considerably more than he anticipated, but he was satisfied with the results. He estimated actors’ salaries at twenty percent of the budget, noting that the “Sword Beach” sequence required 2,000 men. In addition, the cost of transporting U.S. troops to and from Germany totaled $300,000. Zanuck revealed that there were as many as four units shooting on any given day, and commended associate producer Elmo Williams with coordinating all of them. Although Zanuck admitted to directing the most scenes of his entire career, he preferred that his four directors and Williams receive the credit. One-third of the scenes were filmed at France’s Studio Boulogne, which contained forty-seven sets. The result was sixty-six hours of film, accumulated over ten months of production, which would be edited to approximately 200 minutes by late July 1962.
Reviews were generally positive. THE LONGEST DAY was the third highest grossing film of 1962 and took in more than $31 million. 20th Century Fox Records released an LP which featured Paul Anka’s song and narration of the film’s story by Lowell Thomas, but Maurice Jarre’s sparse score received only a 10-minute EP release in France. Milan combined that EP, Anka’s theme, and a few other musical bits on a 2013 CD.
In June 1961, Darryl F. Zanuck Productions purchased the motion picture rights for the 1961 novel SHOCK TREATMENT by Winfred Van Atta. Zanuck’s son, Richard, was to produce. According to the 10 August 1961 Daily Variety, director Alfred Hitchcock was reportedly interested in collaborating on the project with the elder Zanuck. Nearly a year later, Hitchcock’s interest had waned and Aaron Rosenberg had taken over as producer. Screenwriter Sydney Boehm told the 8 September 1963 New York Times that his screenplay was a “considerable rewrite” of the source novel, which he described as “unbelievable.” While Boehm admitted that his version also lacked credibility, he claimed it had better commercial prospects. The writer made several visits to mental hospitals, including two overnight stays in patient wards, as part of his research.
In the film, gardener “Martin Ashley” (Roddy McDowall) kills his wealthy employer and surrenders to police. Psychiatrist “Edwina Beighley” (Lauren Bacall) testifies at his trial, and through her testimony Ashley is committed to a mental hospital for observation. The estate's executor, “Manning” (Judson Laire), believes that Ashley is faking insanity and that he had hidden the million dollars the dead woman kept at the mansion. Manning hires actor “Dale Nelson” (Stuart Whitman) to get himself committed and find out from Ashley the location of the money. Nelson obtains admission to the hospital, eventually making friends with Ashley and falling in love with “Cynthia” (Carol Lynley), a young manic-depressive.
Carol Lynley and Stuart Whitman in SHOCK TREATMENT
The 21 July 1963 New York Times noted similarities in plot and title between Van Atta’s novel and the upcoming release SHOCK CORRIDOR (1963), hinting that the author might have been plagiarized. Five weeks later, the 28 August 1963 Daily Variety reported that the advertising campaign for another new release, THE CARETAKERS (1963), which featured the slogan, “The screen takes a shock treatment,” prompted Rosenberg to briefly contemplate a new title for his production.
Principal photography began 22 August 1963. The executive corridor of Twentieth Century-Fox Studios in Los Angeles was used as the “insane asylum” hallway in the picture. The 19 February 1964 Daily Variety announced a “15-point shock exploitation and merchandising campaign” to promote the film.
SHOCK TREATMENT opened 19 February 1964 in Los Angeles, and 22 July 1964 in New York City to negative reviews, with the New York Times criticizing “the general tone of bland sensationalism.” SHOCK TREATMENT garnered a weak $2.3 million at the box office. Twenty minutes of Jerry Goldsmith’s score for the film were released in 2004 as part of Varese Sarabande’s box set “Jerry Goldsmith at 20th Century Fox.” An expanded version of the score was issued by Intrada in 2013
RIO CONCHOS was initially titled “Guns of Rio Conchos,” after the 1964 novel by Clair Huffaker upon which it was based. Twentieth Century-Fox optioned the book in spring 1962, before it was published, and filmmaker George Sherman, who’d recently collaborated with Clair Huffaker on the 1961 film THE COMANCHEROS, was brought on to produce and direct. John Wayne was named as a potential leading man, and while both Wayne and actor Gregory Peck signed on, neither remained with the project.
An item in the 19 December 1963 Daily Variety made no mention of George Sherman’s former involvement when it announced that Gordon Douglas and David Weisbart had been hired to direct and produce, respectively. In the film, “Lassiter” (Richard Boone), a former Confederate officer, and the Mexican “Rodriguez” (Tony Franciosa) try to prevent former Confederate “Colonel Pardee” (Edmond O'Brien) from selling stolen rifles to renegade Apaches in Mexico. They are aided by U.S. Calvary soldiers “Captain Haven” (Stuart Whitman) and “Sgt. Ben Franklyn” (Jim Brown). Two hundred Navajo Indians appeared in the film as Apaches.
Stuart Whitman in RIO CONCHOS
Richard Boone was injured on set when a pony bolted and dragged the actor nearly 100 yards. Boone was hospitalized overnight for bruises and lacerations, prompting Douglas to rearrange the shooting schedule so that Boone would only appear in “long shots” for the few days following the accident. Around the same time, cast member Edmond O’Brien endured an eye injury that required an emergency flight back to Los Angeles for treatment at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
The world premiere occurred on 23 October 1964 in Cleveland, OH, the hometown of cast member Jim Brown, a professional football player who made his acting debut in the picture. Coinciding with the film’s debut, Gold Medal Books planned to release 400,000 paperback copies of Huffaker’s novel.
Stuart Whitman in RIO CONCHOS
For the role of “Rodriguez,” actor Tony Franciosa (a.k.a. Anthony Franciosa) received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama. He lost to Peter O’Toole for BECKET.
The first released recording of Jerry Goldsmith’s score came in 1989, when the composer conducted the London Symphony in a re-recording of excerpts for Intrada. Intrada re-released that recording in 2013. The complete original film tracks were first released by Film Score Monthly, in a primarily mono format, in 1999. New technology allowed Kritzerland to release those tracks in a mostly stereo format in 2014. La-La Land re-issued the Kritzerland mastering in 2018. RIO CONCHOS grossed $7.1 million at the U.S. box office.
Stuart Whitman and Joanne Woodward, co-stars in THE SOUND AND THE FURY, reunited for 1964’s SIGNPOST TO MURDER. In the film, “Alex Forrester” (Whitman), convicted of murdering his wife, fails to gain his release after spending ten years in a British asylum for the criminally insane. “Dr. Mark Fleming” (Edward Mulhare), Forrester's psychiatrist, informs him of an old law which provides for the reopening of a trial if the prisoner escapes and remains at large for fourteen days. Forrester escapes and takes refuge in the home of “Molly Thomas” (Woodward), who has dark secrets of her own.
Joanne Woodward and Stuart Whitman in SIGNPOST TO MURDER
George Englund directed the film, which did some location shooting in England. Lyn Murray provided the unreleased score.
@ Mr. DiMucci: wasn't Rio Conchos released by Intrada in 1988?
Could be. I'm just guessing. Intrada Catalog No. RVF 6006D (RAMBO III) has a copyright date of 1989. I just assumed that RIO CONCHOS, which has the next Catalog No. in the sequence, RVF 6007D, was also 1989. But perhaps RAMBO III was delayed and RIO CONCHOS was released first, in 1988. However, three other sources (Soundtrack Collector, Discogs, and Wikipedia) also say it's 1989.
British aviation enthusiast “Richard Mays” (James Fox) persuades “Lord Rawnsley” (Robert Morley) to sponsor a London-to-Paris aerial rally as a newspaper promotion. Competitors arrive from around the globe: Italian family man “Count Emilio Ponticelli” (Alberto Sordi), French womanizer “Pierre Dubois” (Jean-Pierre Cassel), Japanese enthusiast “Yamamoto” (Yujiro Ishihara), German Army Colonel “Manfred von Holstein” (Gert Fröbe) and dastardly English cheat “Sir Percy Ware-Armitage” (Terry-Thomas). Mays is concerned only by Texas entrant “Orville Newton” (Stuart Whitman), a gee-whiz American who takes an immediate shine to May’s girlfriend “Patricia Rawnsley” (Sarah Miles). Together, they are THOSE MAGNIFICENT MEN IN THEIR FLYING MACHINES.
The characters from the various countries are all presented in costumes of the era - all, except for the American, played by Whitman, who is dressed in a modern 1960s cowboy outfit. While an outfit such as that worn by William S. Hart or Tom Mix would have been more appropriate and more in line with the comical mood of this movie. the producers wanted Whitman to appeal to modern audiences. At $300,000, this was Stuart Whitman's largest paycheck to date.
Stuart Whitman in THOSE MAGNIFICENT MEN IN THEIR FLYING MACHINES
The beginning and ending sequences of this film marked the final theatrical movie appearance for Red Skelton. The 1910-era airplanes used in this movie were replicas built using the authentic materials of the originals, but with slightly more powerful engines. About twenty planes were built at a cost of about five thousand pounds sterling each (then, about $14,000).
Ken Annakin directed the 1965 comedy. Ron Goodwin’s score was released on a 20th Century Fox LP. The complete score was released by Intrada in 2011. The film was the fourth-highest grossing in the U.S. in 1965, with a take of nearly $38 million.
Inconvenienced by a flight delay, six travelers in South Africa charter a smaller plane. All goes well until they hit a massive swarm of locusts and are forced down in the SANDS OF THE KALAHARI Desert. One man is killed in the rough landing, and most of their belongings are destroyed in a fire. The survivors are the pilot “Sturdevan” (Nigel Davenport), retired German soldier “Grimmelman” (Harry Andrews), friendly “Doctor Bondrachai” (Theodore Bikel), injured engineer “Bain” (Stanley Baker), divorced “Grace Munkton” (Susannah York) and an American hunter, “O'Brien” (Stuart Whitman). Now comes the fight for survival.
Stuart Whitman in SANDS OF THE KALAHARI
In early February 1964, executive producer Joseph E. Levine replaced the original production team (headed by Joseph Schenck) with Cy Endfield and Stanley Baker, after their success on Embassy Pictures' ZULU, which was released several weeks earlier in London. Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor had verbally agreed to appear in the film, but after they demanded too much money (a combined $1.5 million salary, as well as a large share in the film's gross), star/producer Stanley Baker pursued Robert Mitchum and Carroll Baker as the leads. After these negotiations failed, he signed George Peppard. Peppard didn't get along with director Cy Endfield. He insisted that Endfield be replaced, but Baker, who was co-producing the film with his close friend Endfield, instead replaced Peppard. Stuart Whitman was quickly drafted in, but he didn't like the part so he swapped roles with Baker.
Stanley Baker's company Diamond Films Ltd. put up a good deal of money for the production of the film. Once the film flopped at the box office, Baker didn't produce any more productions under his company. The main theme from John Dankworth’s score was released on a 2009 Dankworth compilation CD from Eclipse/Universal UMC.
Based on a novel by Norman Mailer, AN AMERICAN DREAM, follows former war hero “Stephen Rojack” (Stuart Whitman), who is now a successful but controversial television commentator whose specialty is criticizing the police for not curtailing the activities of Cosa Nostra gang leader “Eddie Ganucci” (Joe De Santis). One evening Rojack receives a phone call from his estranged wife, “Deborah” (Eleanor Parker), a wealthy and dissipated alcoholic. He visits her in the hope of getting her to agree to a divorce. That’s when his troubles really begin.
Stuart Whitman and Susan Denberg in AN AMERICAN DREAM
Director Robert Gist had a small acting role in the 1958 film adaptation of Norman Mailer's novel, THE NAKED AND THE DEAD. AN AMERICAN DREAM was the second Mailer novel to be filmed. The 1966 drama earned only $2 million at the box office. Johnny Mandel’s score has not had a release.
In 1967, Stuart Whitman embarked on his first foray into a regular network television series. “Cimarron Strip” was a western series in which Whitman starred as “Marshal Jim Crown.” The series was one of only three 90-minute weekly western series that aired during the 1960s (the others were “The Virginian” and, for one season, “Wagon Train”), and the only 90-minute series of any kind to be centered primarily around one lead character in almost every episode.
Stuart Whitman in “Cimarron Strip”
The series is set in the late 1880s in the Cimarron Territory, which would become the Oklahoma Panhandle in 1890. For complex historical reasons, this rugged strip of land existed as a virtually ungoverned U.S. territory for several decades. It was sometimes called No Man's Land, with a reputation for lawlessness and vigilante activity. On the show, Marshal Jim Crown is trying to bring order to the region before its political status is finally resolved.
Stuart Whitman in “Cimarron Strip”
Jim Crown, who had led a rather wild life and had cleaned up Abilene, was assigned to the town of Cimarron. He arrives to find that the sheriff has resigned, leaving Crown on his own to settle the increasing unrest caused by the news he brings, that the cattlemen's leases on the land have been revoked and a final decision on the land is postponed indefinitely. With no sheriff and no support from Army troops, Crown is on his own to keep law and order in this borderland between the Kansas Territory and Indian Territory.
Also appearing in the cast were Jill Townsend as “Dulcey Coopersmith,” born in England, who, arrives in Cimarron City on the same train as Marshal Crown, two months after her mother's death in Providence. Dulcey traveled to Cimarron to be with the father she had not seen since the age of five, only to discover he had been killed by a beer wagon. Her father's partner was “MacGregor” (Percy Herbert), a Scotsman, who had let his Wayfarer's Inn fall into disrepair. He was a retired Colonel in Her Majesty's (Queen Victoria) forces. Another friend of Dulcey's father was “Francis Wilde” (Randy Boone), born in St. Louis and trying to make his way in the world as a reporter and photographer.
CBS debuted “Cimarron Strip” on Thursday, 7 September 1967. The show was opposite ABC's “Batman,” “The Flying Nun,” and “Bewitched” (#11 in the ratings) and NBC's “Daniel Boone” (#29) and “Ironside” (#26). Due to low ratings coupled with high production costs, the series was canceled after one season of 23 episodes. The show was rerun by CBS during the summer of 1971, three years after it had been canceled. Since even without commercials, the shows ran 72 minutes each, a number of them were converted into western feature films to be shown overseas or syndicated to television. The series theme and pilot incidental music was written by Maurice Jarre.
At the end of WWII, Allied forces led by OSS officer “Lee Mitchell” (Stuart Whitman) enter a well-guarded German rocket base and kidnap among others the rocket scientist “Dr. Von Heinken” (Pinkas Braun). When they try to make THE LAST ESCAPE, they are followed both by Germans and Russians who want to get their hands on the doctor.
Margit Saad and Stuart Whitman in THE LAST ESCAPE
This film was one of six low-budget World War II films produced by Oakmont Productions. Reportedly filmed in 1968, it was the last to be released, in May 1970. Walter Grauman directed the film, which had a stock music score by Dominic Frontiere.
Irwin Allen’s made-for-television film CITY BENEATH THE SEA is set in 2053. The U.S. President (Richard Basehart) demands that former Navy Admiral “Michael Matthews” (Stuart Whitman) return to duty as commander of Pacifica, a huge underwater research installation. The U.S. has been transferring its cache of gold from Fort Knox to Pacifica because of seismic activity near Fort Knox, and now the government has learned that it must also transfer a huge store of fissile radioactive material to Pacifica for safekeeping, because only proximity to gold keeps the material from exploding.
Stuart Whitman, Susana Miranda, Rosemary Forsyth, and Robert Colbert in CITY BENEATH THE SEA
Irwin Allen directed as well as produced the film, which premiered on NBC on 25 January 1971. One of the underwater craft used in the movie is the "flying sub" from the later seasons of the television series “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.” Allen re-used other props from his prior series, as well as actors (Basehart, Robert Colbert from “Time Tunnel”). The film had an unreleased score by Richard LaSalle. CITY BENEATH THE SEA was also released in theatrical markets overseas.
