Steve McQueen Makes Use of the Honeymoon Machine

Steve McQueen as Fergie.

Before he played a sailor in The Sand Pebbles and gambled for high stakes in The Cincinnati Kid, Steve McQueen starred as a Naval officer gambling for big bucks in The Honeymoon Machine (1961). But whereas the later films were "A" list dramas, The Honeymoon Machine is a modest comedy intended as a showcase for its up-and-coming stars.

McQueen plays Lieutenant Fergie Howard, who hatches a scheme to take advantage of a state-of-the-art computer--the Magnetic Analyzer Computer Synchrotron--on board his ship. With the help of a scientific genius pal (Jim Hutton) and a gullible fellow officer (Jack Mullaney), Fergie plans to make a fortune playing the roulette wheel at a Venice casino.

Paula Prentiss as a wiener heiress.

Based on the outcomes of hundreds of roulette wheel spins, the computer can predict the three most likely winning numbers based on the result of the previous spin. Pretty soon, Fergie and his pals are rolling in cash. Their plan gets more complicated, though, when Fergie falls for an admiral's daughter (Brigid Bazlen) and his scientist pal encounters an old flame (Paula Prentiss). Even worse, the admiral intercepts the ship-to-shore communications with the computer and thinks that high-level espionage is being plotted.

The screenplay for The Honeymoon Machine was written by Lorenzo Semple, Jr. and George Wells. It was based on Semple's 1959 Broadway play The Golden Fleecing, which starred Tom Poston as Fergie. Constance Ford and (Poston's future wife) Suzanne Pleshette played the female leads. The film version was Semple's first big screen credit. He would go on to write major films such as Papillon (1973) and Three Days of the Condor (1975)--though he is best known for creating the original Batman TV series.

Steve McQueen was not the first choice to play Lt. Fergie Howard. MGM wanted Cary Grant for the part (yes, for a role originated by Tom Poston!). When Grant passed, the studio cast McQueen, who had just been signed to a three-picture deal. According to several sources, McQueen didn't like The Honeymoon Machine and walked out of a screening of it. He certainly doesn't put forth much effort on the screen. It's not a bad performance, but clearly McQueen seems to be relying on little more than his natural charisma.

Jack Weston as Signalman Taylor.

On the other hand, The Honeymoon Machine affords Jim Hutton, Paula Prentiss, and Jack Weston an opportunity to shine. Prentiss steals all her scenes as an heiress who dislikes wearing her glasses--though clearly she can see very little without them. Weston has a field day as a bourbon-loving sailor who imagines seeing Martians.

The always affable Hutton was paired with Paula Prentiss in five films. Their height had something to do with the casting--Hutton was 6'5" and Prentiss 5'11"--but they also displayed an effective on-screen chemistry. They make The Honeymoon Machine an entertaining endeavor--though it's one of those frothy 1960s comedies that once consumed is easily forgotten.

The irrelevant title is a reference to "Operation Honeymoon," a missile project involving the computer in the opening scene of the movie. It has nothing to do with the rest of the film!

The Five Best Ellery Queen TV Series Episodes

Jim Hutton as Ellery.

A unique literary creation, Ellery Queen is famous as both a fictional detective and a best-selling “author” (as a pseudonym for cousins Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee). Prior to Jim Hutton's well-regarded 1975-76 Ellery Queen TV series, the sleuth did not fare well in film and television.

Donald Cook and comedian Eddie Quillan each made one EQ movie in the 1930s. In 1940, Columbia launched a modestly-budgeted film series with Ralph Bellamy as Ellery Queen. He starred in four entries before being replaced by sturdy William Gargan for the final three films. On television, Lee Bowman, Hugh Marlowe, and George Nader each starred in three different TV series in the 1950s. NBC tried to launch a new series in 1971 with Ellery Queen: Don’t Look Behind You, which featured a miscast Peter Lawford as a writer-detective with an eye for the ladies (we'll review this movie later this week).

David Wayne as Inspector Queen.

Four years later, Columbo creators William Link and Richard Levinson created Ellery Queen, a one-hour TV mystery with Hutton as Ellery and David Wayne as his father, Inspector Richard Queen. Levinson and Link borrowed an entertaining element from the early novels, in which--just prior to the climax--the reader was informed that he or she possessed all the clues required to solve the mystery. In the TV series, this was accomplished by having Hutton break "the fourth wall" and talk directly to viewers.

Link and Levinson also made one significant change from the novels. They expanded on Ellery's rather dry personality by making him occasionally absent-minded (about routine things) and a bit of a bumbler. Even if their Ellery Queen wasn't a straightforward adaptation of the novels, it still captured their spirit and also wisely set the mysteries in the 1940s. Here are my picks for the five best episodes:

Edward Andrews and Larry Hagman.

1. The Adventure of the Mad Tea Party - The only regular episode based on an Ellery Queen novel or story sends Ellery to a country estate to discuss turning one of his literary works into a play. When wealthy impresario Spencer Lockridge (Edward Andrews) disappears, Ellery suspects foul play. What's not to like with suspects dressed like characters from Alice in Wonderland, mysterious packages being delivered, and a key clue involving a reflection in the mirror? Rhonda Fleming, Jim Backus, and Larry Hagman form a first-rate cast of guest stars. The only downside is that the always likable Inspector Queen (well played by David Wayne) only plays a small part.

Swofford as Frank Flanagan.

2. The Adventure of the Comic Book Crusader - Ellery clashes with a publisher who wants to turn his fictional detective into a comic book action hero. When the unpopular publisher is found shot, Ellery becomes one of the suspects. Another good cast, headed by Donald O'Connor and Lynda Day George, enhances a mystery with Agatha Christie overtones.This episode marked Ken Swofford's first appearance as larger-than-life, headline-seeking columnist Frank Flanagan. He appeared in four other episodes and later played a police detective on another Levinson-Link series: Murder, She Wrote.

3. The Adventure of the Blunt Instrument - After winning the prestigious Blunt Instrument Award for best mystery fiction, author Edgar Manning is found dead--with the trophy for his award apparently used as the weapon. Yes, there's some amusing humor in this outing, with much of it coming from people who suggest various remedies for Ellery's head cold. Many episodes incorporate clever 1946-47 references and this one has one of the best: one suspect's alibi is that he was attending a double-feature of She-Wolf of London and The Spider Woman Strikes Back, two films actually released in 1946.

A nice shot of father and son.

4. The Adventure of Caesar's Last Sleep - Inspector Queen is assigned to protect a star witness prior to a mobster's trial. With two reliable policeman stationed in an adjacent room in a hotel suite, the witness is murdered...but how? This outing features the most ingenious murder method of the 22 episodes and also squeezes in a strong subplot involving political pressure and an ambitious district attorney (Stuart Whitman). Inspector Queen solves the crime, which is a nice change-of-pace. Look quickly for Timothy Carey as a hired killer...yes, that's South Dakota Slim from Beach Blanket Bingo!

5. The Adventure of the 12th Floor Express - The publisher of the Daily Examiner arrives at work, steps into the executive elevator, pushes the button for the 12th floor, and is found shot dead on another floor. Like some of the best mysteries, the solution to this murder is a simple one--but that's the beauty of it. Ken Swofford is back as Frank Flanagan and the plot makes excellent use of the newspaper building setting. This episode was one of three directed by Jack Arnold, who is best-known for the 1950s science fiction classics The Creature from the Black Lagoon, It Came from Outer Space, and The Incredible Shrinking Man.

Honorable Mention:  The Adventure of the Sunday Punch, a strong, well-written teleplay set in the world of boxing. Please don't make anything of the absence of episodes featuring John Hillerman as radio detective Simon Brimmer. Indeed, I thought Hillerman was a delight in all eight episodes in which he appeared.

This post is part of the Classic TV Detectives Blogathon hosted by the Classic TV Blog Association. Click here to check out the other posts.

The John Wayne Movie That Katharine Ross Called "the Biggest Piece of Crap I've Ever Done"

Here are some interesting tidbits about Katharine Ross's title quote. She made it during the production of Hellfighters (1968), which is not the kind of publicity favored by movie studios. She had only made a handful of films at that time, though one of them was The Graduate (1967)--so perhaps Hellfighters was her worst film to date. However, Ms. Ross later made some pretty crappy movies like The Swarm, The Betsy, and The Legacy (all produced in 1978). If she had dubbed Hellfighters the "crappiest" after that trio, then that would have meant something!

Sandwiched between two of John Wayne's best known films--The Green Berets and True Grit--Hellfighters owes more to the former (without the politics) than the latter. In fact, two of the Duke's fellow Berets, Jim Hutton and Bruce Cabot, team up with him again in Hellfighters. This time, the trio are fighting oil fires for money. Wayne plays Chance Buckman, whose Houston-based company's motto is: "Around the clock. Around the world." Their clients are oil well owners, who buy insurance just in case one of their wells turns into a tower of spewing flames. When that happens, the phone rings (answered by the ever-efficient Barbara Stuart) and our guys take off in their helicopter to put out the fire.

Ross--she didn't like the movie.

That's no easy task, of course, and the film's best scenes show Buckman's well-rehearsed crew managing the flames before they blow them out with nitroglycerin. I don't know about you, but handling nitro in the vicinity of a raging fire is not my idea of a promising occupation. This opinion was apparently shared by Madelyn Buckman (Vera Miles), Chance's ex-wife, who left him and took their young daughter Tish. However, when Chance undergoes a life-threatening surgery, his right-hand man Greg (Hutton) sends for the now-adult estranged daughter (Katharine Ross).

Not only does Tish reconnect with her father, she also marries Greg. Their daughter's wedding reunites Chance and Madelyn, who have never stopped loving one another. Chance retires from the oil firefighting business and take a boardroom job (resulting in an entertaining scene where the board discusses the virtues of various bathroom colors for their gas stations). Can Chance live without the adrenalin rush or will Madelyn be forced to leave him again? Will Tish be able to continue coping with Greg's risky occupation? And what about those South American guerrilla fighters trying to blow up the wells where Greg's team is working?

Despite its unusual topic, Hellfighters is a formula movie, the kind that dominated much of Wayne's later career (e.g., McQ, Big Jake, The Train Robbers). It's way too long at 118 minutes and, after the second oil well fire, the action scenes become redundant. Its worst crime, though, is wasting Vera Miles in a small and thankless role.

Ad from the Red Adair Company's web site.

Hellfighters is loosely based on the life of Paul "Red" Adair, who founded his oil firefighting company in 1959. Adair gained fame in 1962 when his company doused the flames of a Sahara Desert oil well fire that had burned for over five months. Adair, who was one of several consultants on the making of Hellfighters, died in 2004. A company bearing his name still provides services for "wild well control, oil well fires, and blowouts."

While Wayne and Ross went on to memorable roles (in, respectively, True Grit and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid), Jim Hutton moved from the big screen to the small screen. He starred in several made-for-TV movies and made guest appearances in series like Marcus Welby, M.D., The Name of the Game, and Love, American Style. He was perhaps best remembered for playing Ellery Queen in the 1975-76 series. He was still active in television when he died of liver cancer in 1979.