Val AveryFilmography

Law & Order: Deadbeat

Synopsis: A "deadbeat dad" is found murdered in a hotel room. The suspects include the victim's embittered father-in-law Max Schaffer (Val Avery) and two women in the dead man's life. Ultimately the prosecution of the case boils down to jury sympathy for a long-suffering and arguably justified perpetrator Read More

Assault at West Point: The Court-Martial of Johnson Whittaker

Synopsis: Bigotry and values are questioned when a Black West Point cadet is singled out and harassed by fellow cadets and senior officers. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Teamster Boss: The Jackie Presser Story

Actors: Brian Dennehy, Jeff Daniels, Maria Conchita Alonso

Synopsis: Teamster Boss: The Jackie Presser Story is a made-for-cable adaptation of James Neff's Mobbed Up, a real-life account about Teamster president Jackie Presser. Brian Dennehy plays Presser, who was Jimmy Hoffa's successor as president of the Teamsters. Like Hoffa, Presser was caught between the Read More

Law & Order: Confession

Synopsis: Season Two of Law & Order begins on a shockingly tragic note, as Detective Sergeant Max Greevey is shot down and killed in front of his own home (former regular George Dzundza had already departed the series when this scene was filmed). In his grief, Greevey's partner Logan (Chris Noth) vows to Read More

Hunter: Ring of Honor

Synopsis: Sammy Davis Jr. guest stars as Benny Shaffer, veteran trainer of up-and-coming boxer Sonny Ruiz (Scott Colomby). When Ruiz's manager and doctor are murdered, both Shaffer and the boxer fall under suspicion. With the help of police detective Hunter (Fred Dryer), Shaffer hopes to prove that the real Read More

Moonlighting: In 'N Outlaws

Synopsis: This episode focuses on Blue Moon employees Bert Viola (Curtis Armstrong) and Agnes Dipesto (Allyce Beasley). Bert wants to attend a Viola family reunion, but Agnes has been sequestered with the jury for the murder trial of one John Gibson--and of course, Agnes is the sole holdout who believes in Read More

Cobra

Actors: Sylvester Stallone, Brigitte Nielsen, Reni Santoni, Andrew Robinson, Lee Garlington

Synopsis: Crime is the disease and Sylvester Stallone is the cure in Cobra, a high-octane rehash of the Clint Eastwood/Dirty Harry films, burnished to a 1980s action sheen. Stallone is Marion Cobretti, a cop called in when regular police methods have failed. Cobra is sent to get a cult of Charles Read More

The Messenger

Actors: Fred Williamson, Sandy Cummings, Val Avery, Michael Dante, Christopher Connelly

Synopsis: This enjoyably sleazy action film stars Fred Williamson as Jake Turner, a burglar who also happens to be an ex-con and a former Green Beret. When Turner's drug-addicted wife dies, he begins murdering the dealers and mobsters whom he holds responsible, including genre favorite Joe Spinell (Maniac). Read More

Courage

Actors: Sophia Loren, Billy Dee Williams, Hector Elizondo

Synopsis: This three-hour TV movie stars Sophia Loren as New Yorker Marianna Miraldo. Hurt and angered by her son's cocaine addiction, Marianna discovers that a close friend also has ties with the drug scene. After several of her imprisoned friend's associates try to contact him through her, the DEA Read More

Too Scared to Scream

Actors: Michael Connors, Anne Archer, Leon Isaac Kennedy, Ian McShane, Ruth Ford

Synopsis: This uneasy mix between a slasher film and a police story focuses on a series of murders in a luxury Manhattan apartment building and the main suspect in the case, an eccentric doorman (Ian McShane). The chief detective sent to unravel the crimes, Lt. Dinardo (Mike Connors) is involved with Kate (Anne Archer Read More

The Pope of Greenwich Village

Actors: Eric Roberts, Mickey Rourke, Daryl Hannah, Geraldine Page, Kenneth McMillan

Synopsis: Set on the streets of New York's Little Italy, this dramatic series of character studies chronicles the lives and relationships between a disparate pair of Italian American cousins. Both of them want to leave the poverty of ghetto life, but each takes a dramatically different route when one of Read More

The Sting II

Actors: Jackie Gleason, Mac Davis, Teri Garr, Karl Malden, Oliver Reed

Synopsis: Although penned by the same screenwriter, David S. Ward, this sequel to The Sting (1973) is tarnished by comparisons to its predecessor. Jackie Gleason fills the shoes of Paul Newman as Harry Gondorff and Mac Davis slips into the Robert Redford role of Johnny Hooker, two con men pals whose latest Read More

Easy Money

Actors: Rodney Dangerfield, Joe Pesci, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Candice Azzara, Taylor Negron

Synopsis: Ideally tailored to the talents of Rodney Dangerfield, Easy Money casts Rapid Rodney as Monty Capoletti, the black sheep of a prominent family. Nothing can curb Monty's drinking, gluttony, gambling, smoking, or general carousing. Nothing, that is, except the possibility of inheriting millions from Read More

Jinxed!

Actors: Bette Midler, Ken Wahl, Rip Torn, Val Avery, Jack Elam

Synopsis: Jinxed is an apt name for this disastrous project which, sadly, turned out to be Don Siegel's final film. The film takes place in Reno, where blackjack dealer Willie Brodax (Ken Wahl) becomes an innocent victim of a broken-down gambler named Harold Benson (Rip Torn). Such is Willie's luck that Read More

Sharky's Machine

Actors: Burt Reynolds, Vittorio Gassman, Rachel Ward, Bernie Casey, Brian Keith

Synopsis: A William Diehl novel was the source of the noirish nailbiter Sharky's Machine. Sharky (Burt Reynolds) is an undercover cop who fouls up an assignment and is kicked downstairs to the vice squad -- a rough-shod bunch of hellraisers who make life miserable. Soon, however, Sharky's life does a 180 Read More

Choices

Actors: Paul Carafotes, Victor French, Lelia Goldoni, Val Avery, Dennis Patrick

Synopsis: Director Silvio Narizzano totes out a Sunday morning public affairs programming style in this it-could-happen-to-you drama about a popular high-school student who finds that he has what some consider a disability. Paul Carafotes plays a high-school student who loves to play football and music. But Read More

Continental Divide

Actors: John Belushi, Blair Brown, Allen Garfield, Carlin Glynn, Tony Ganios

Synopsis: Michael Apted directed and Lawrence Kasdan wrote the screenplay for this diverting romantic comedy -- a film that attempts to recapture the spirit of an old Spencer Tracy-Katharine Hepburn vehicle. A very subdued John Belushi plays a star columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times named Ernie Souchak Read More

The Chosen

Actors: Maximilian Schell, Rod Steiger, Robby Benson, Barry Miller, Hildy Brooks

Synopsis: The overemphatic acting of Robby Benson was something of an endurance test to certain critics of the 1980s, but even these carpers were impressed by Benson's outstanding performance in The Chosen. Set in the Brooklyn of the 1940s, the film elucidates the friendship between two young Jews of Read More

Quincy, M.E.: Of All Sad Words

Synopsis: This episode may well have been inspired by the 1979 Beverly Hills Supper Club fire in Cincinnati, which claimed the lives of 165 persons. Insurance investigator Aaron Zacharian (Val Avery) suspects that the "accidental" fire which killed nightclub owner Lou Chesler (Borah Silver) was no accident. Read More

Gloria

Actors: Gena Rowlands, John Adames, Buck Henry, Julie Carmen, Lupe Garnica

Synopsis: Gloria (Gena Rowlands), a self-involved woman in her forties who was once a mobster's mistress, is asked to look after Philip (Juan Adames), the son of her Mafia-connected Puerto Rican neighbors. This temporary set-up becomes permanent when the neighbors are killed in a mob hit. Philip has in his Read More

Brubaker

Actors: Robert Redford, Yaphet Kotto, Jane Alexander, Murray Hamilton, David Keith

Synopsis: Fact-based drama starring Robert Redford as Henry Brubaker, the new inmate at a run-down Southern prison that's become notorious for corruption and violence. After he witnesses several instances of gross misconduct and defuses a tense confrontation with a crazed inmate (Morgan Freeman), Brubaker Read More

The Wanderers

Actors: Ken Wahl, John Friedrich, Karen Allen, Linda Manz, Toni Kalem

Synopsis: The year 1979 saw an epidemic of American street-gang films, including Phil Kaufman's hit period drama The Wanderers. Set in the Bronx in 1963, the film concerns the titular gang of Italian-American teens and their ongoing power struggle with the rival "Fordham Baldies." Richard Price, upon whose Read More

Love and Bullets

Actors: Charles Bronson, Rod Steiger, Jill Ireland, Strother Martin, Bradford Dillman, Michael Vincente Gazzo

Synopsis: Charles Bronson is out for revenge (and doesn't that sound familiar) in this action drama. Jackie Pruit (Jill Ireland) is the girlfriend of notorious gangster Joe Bomposa (Rod Steiger). When it looks as if Jackie's life is being threatened by Bomposa's goons, the FBI moves in to protect Read More

The Amityville Horror

Actors: James Brolin, Margot Kidder, Rod Steiger, Don Stroud, Natasha Ryan, Murray Hamilton

Synopsis: "For God's sake, GET OUT!" was the ad campaign for the 1979 shocker The Amityville Horror. The film was based on the allegedly true story of the luckless Lutz family, who move lock, stock, and barrel into a new home, only to find that it is possessed by the demonic spirits of its previous owners. Read More

Double Take

Quincy, M.E.: Requiem for the Living

Synopsis: Quincy (Jack Klugman) and Sam (Robert Ito) are abducted by the minions of mob boss Vince DiNardi (John Vernon), who makes an offer that our hero can't refuse. DiNaldi has been poisoned, and the doctors have given him only 24 hours to live. With Sam's life being used as a bargaining chip, Quincy is Read More

Up in Smoke

Actors: Cheech Marin, Tommy Chong, Stacy Keach, Edie Adams, Tom Skerritt

Synopsis: Then professional potheads Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong teamed up for Cheech & Chong: Up In Smoke, which features the drug-addled duo on a road trip throughout California; that is to say, a road-trip they hope will culminate in finding some quality weed. Instead, a series of mishaps result in Read More

Quincy, M.E.: Snake Eyes, Part 1

Synopsis: After a four-episode tryout as a component of the NBC Sunday Mystery Movie anthology, Quincy, M.E. launched its regular weekly run with this episode, originally telecast as a two-hour special but since re-edited for syndication as two one-hour installments. In Part One, we find LA County medical Read More

Heroes

Actors: Henry Winkler, Sally Field, Harrison Ford, Val Avery, Olivia Cole

Synopsis: Heroes is an old-fashioned social problem movie concerning a troubled Vietnam veteran and the loving woman who helps him to work out his problems. Henry Winkler plays Jack Dunne, a veteran who has a history of mental problems. Jack fools the hospital doctor Elias (Hector Elias) and escapes from Read More

Quincy, M.E.: Snake Eyes, Part 2

Synopsis: In the conclusion of Quincy, M.E.'s two-part Season Two opener (originally telecast as a single two-hour episode), Quincy (Jack Klugman) continues to look for the source of a mysterious epidemic that has caused several deaths at a pathologist's convention in a Lake Tahoe casino. The casino's Read More

Harry and Walter Go to New York

Actors: James Caan, Elliott Gould, Michael Caine, Diane Keaton, Charles Durning, Lesley Ann Warren

Synopsis: Harry and Walter Go to New York was born of the theory that, the more stars and money that you throw into a film, the better the film will be. The theory has seldom been proven true, and it certainly wasn't in this case. Harry (James Caan) and Walter (Elliot Gould) are a third-rate vaudeville Read More

The Killing of a Chinese Bookie

Actors: Ben Gazzara, Timothy Carey, Azizi Johari, Meade Roberts, Seymour Cassel

Synopsis: John Cassavetes takes a contemporary film noir turn (which he would return to in Gloria) after exploring domestic melodrama in A Woman Under the Influence with The Killing of a Chinese Bookie. Ben Gazzara plays Cosmo Vitelli, the owner of a sleazy Los Angeles strip joint, who loses $20,000 Read More

Baretta: Murder for Me

Actors: Robert Blake, Edward Grover, Tom Ewell, Michael D. Roberts, Chino "Fats" Williams

Synopsis: A doctor is murdered, and the chief suspect is a grieving young father who held the victim responsible for his son's death. Placed in custody, the perpetrator escapes, embarking upon a seemingly senseless murder spree. In his efforts to nab the rampaging killer, undercover detective Tony Baretta (Robert Blake Read More

Russian Roulette

Actors: George Segal, Cristina Raines, Bo Brundin, Denholm Elliott, Gordon Jackson

Synopsis: The picturesque streets of Vancouver, British Columbia provide the setting for this thriller that is based on Ardies' novel Kosygin Is Coming. The story centers on a Mountie who finds himself entangled in a KGB conspiracy to kill the renegade Russian Premier Alexei Kosygin during his Canadian Read More

Let's Do It Again

Actors: Sidney Poitier, Bill Cosby, Calvin Lockhart, John Amos, Jimmie "J.J." Walker

Synopsis: A pair of blue-collar buddies use hypnosis to turn a wimpy boxer into a champ in this crime comedy, which reunites actor/director Sidney Poitier and comedian Bill Cosby, stars of the similarly themed Uptown Saturday Night. Clyde Williams (Poitier) and Billy Foster (Cosby) want to help raise funds Read More

Lucky Lady

Actors: Gene Hackman, Liza Minnelli, Burt Reynolds, Geoffrey Lewis, John Hillerman

Synopsis: During the Prohibition era, Walker (Burt Reynolds) and Kibby (Gene Hackman) run a liquor smuggling operation in Mexico; they team up with Claire (Liza Minnelli), a cabaret entertainer who has an "in" with several big-time nightclub owners. Complications ensue when both men fall in love with Read More

Kojak: Market to a Dead Bookie

Synopsis: In a disturbing turn of events, Lt. Theo Kojak (Telly Savalas) appears to be on the take, living extravagantly, spending lavishly and gambling heavily. Only a handful of intimates are aware that Kojak's "corruption" is actually part of a scheme to trap a heroin dealer who has repeatedly eluded the Read More

The F.B.I.: A Piece of the Action

Synopsis: Charles Cioffi and George DiCenzo are cast as brothers Vic and Dave, co-owners of a struggling trucking firm. Hoping for a quick financial turnover, the brothers make a deal with the Mob, offering to hijack their competitors' trucks for a share of the loot. Unfortunately, the Mob has a lengthy Read More

Bloodsport

Actors: Ben Johnson, Gary Busey, Larry Hagman, Bill [William] Lucking, David F. Doyle

Synopsis: Bloodsport began life under the less alluring title Poetry in Motion. Gary Busey and Ben Johnson star as, respectively, a high-school football quarterback and his "winning is the only thing" father. The more his dad pushes him, the less Busey truly wants to be an athlete. The inter-family Read More

Ironside: Love Me in December

Synopsis: Ironside (Raymond Burr) heads to a farming community at the request of Vickie Dunhill (Kathy Cannon), the 18-year-old fiancee of wealthy middle-aged rancher Aaron Clark (Steve Forrest). It seems that a murder has occurred, and that the local citizens, resentful over the fact that Clark has Read More

Black Caesar

Actors: Omer Jeffrey

Synopsis: Cult director Larry Cohen (It's Alive) directed this violent blaxploitation film. Nasty racist John McKinney cripples a black shoeshine boy, who grows up to be Tommy Gibbs (Fred Williamson), the Godfather of Harlem. The crimelord now has his tormentor McKinney (Art Lund) in his pocket, based on Read More

The Laughing Policeman

Actors: Dave Belrose, Walter Matthau, Bruce Dern, Louis Gossett, Jr., Albert Paulsen, Anthony Zerbe

Synopsis: Stuart Rosenberg's taut police thriller, based on the Martin Beck novel by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahlöö, concerns a serial killer who is targeting bus riders. When a bus full of innocent commuters are killed on a San Francisco street, Jake Martin (Walter Matthau) is assigned to track down the Read More

The Legend of Hillbilly John

Actors: Honor Hound

Synopsis: Based primarily on the "Silver John" tales of Manly Wade Wellman, this enthusiastically silly low-budgeter tells the story of young John (Hedge Capers), a balladeer who returns home to find that his Grandpappy (Denver Pyle) -- also named John -- has decided to do battle with the Devil by playing a Read More

Papillon

Actors: Steve McQueen, Dustin Hoffman, Victor Jory, Don Gordon, Anthony Zerbe

Synopsis: The autobiography of Henri Charriere, one of the few people to successfully escape from the notorious French penal colony of Devil's Island, served as the basis for Papillon. Steve McQueen plays the pugnacious Charriere (known as "Papillon," or "butterfly," because of a prominent tatoo) Read More

The F.B.I.: The Outcast

Synopsis: A valued member of a powerful crime ring, John Prentiss (Michael Callan) decides to go into business for himself when he falls in love with Ellen Conway (Katherine Justice). Prentiss' former associates aren't keen on this, so they take out a contract on his life. It is up to Inspector Erskine to Read More

Firehouse

Synopsis: An African American youth must deal with both many physical tests and the racism of his peers as he works to become a full-fledged fire fighter in this drama that was originally made as a television pilot. As he is the only black man in an all white unit, things are difficult, especially after he Read More

Ironside: Achilles' Heel

Synopsis: Ironside star Raymond Burr makes his TV directorial debut in this episode, in which Chief Ironside comes to the aid of a troubled Federal judge and the judge's son. Slated to preside over a well-publicized fraud case, Judge Van Buren (William Windom) is approached by "certain parties" and told to 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

The Anderson Tapes

Actors: Frank Macetta, Sean Connery, Dyan Cannon, Martin Balsam, Alan King, Ralph Meeker

Synopsis: This breathlessly paced high-tech thriller stars Sean Connery as Anderson, a career criminal who's just been released from his latest prison term. Seeking a quick financial turnover, Anderson uses mob funding to finance an ambitious robbery. With a gang of expert thieves, Anderson sets about to Read More

Who Says I Can't Ride a Rainbow?

Actors: Kevin Riou, Otis Stephens

Synopsis: This upbeat children's adventure tells the true story of gentle Barney Marcovitz who firmly believes that the world's hope is in the hands of children. Barney manages a pony farm/petting zoo in Greenwich Village so that city kids can sample country life. The trouble begins when the real estate Read More

Mission: Impossible: Encounter

Actors: Peter Graves, Greg Morris, Peter Lupus, Elizabeth Ashley

Synopsis: Elizabeth Ashley shines in an extremely difficult guest-star turn in the Mission:Impossible episode "Encounter." The IMF is assigned to halt the extortionist activities of crooked business executives Frank Brady (Val Avery) and Martin Stoner (Lawrence Dane). The key to the mission's success is the Read More

Minnie and Moskowitz

Actors: Jack Danskin, Sean Joyce, Gena Rowlands, Seymour Cassel, Val Avery, Timothy Carey, Katherine Cassavetes

Synopsis: Can a straight-laced woman find happiness with a scruffy hippie who has a bad habit of getting beaten up? Minnie Moore (Gena Rowlands) was a prom queen in high school but has become disillusioned with life now that she is a divorcée who has just turned 40. Her marriage ended badly, and her current Read More

The Traveling Executioner

Actors: Stacy Keach, Marianna Hill, Bud Cort, Graham Jarvis, James J. Sloyan

Synopsis: In this unusual black comedy, Stacy Keach plays Jonas Candide, a former carnival showman who roams the southern U.S. in 1918 with a portable electric chair. He offers his services as a freelance executioner for $100 a pop. He takes a job in a prison in Alabama, where he is supposed to execute a Read More

Machine Gun McCain

Actors: John Cassavetes, Britt Ekland, Peter Falk, Gabriele Ferzetti, Salvo Randone

Synopsis: Hank McCain (John Cassavetes) is the imprisoned gangster who gets out of jail with the help of the mob. The syndicate wants him to take part in a heist of a Las Vegas casino. The plan is discussed and soon abandoned by the mob, but Hank decides to go ahead with the robbery. Disguised as a Read More

A Dream of Kings

Actors: Anthony Quinn, Irene Papas, Inger Stevens, Sam Levene, Val Avery

Synopsis: Anthony Quinn plays Matsoukas, a Greek/American ne'er do well, living in Chicago with his long-suffering wife Caliope (Irene Papas). When Matsoukas discovers that his son (Radames Pera) is dying, he decides that the boy needs to get out of the Windy City and recuperate in the more agreeable Read More

Mission: Impossible: The System

Actors: Peter Graves, Barbara Bain, Martin Landau, Greg Morris, Peter Lupus

Synopsis: To get the evidence necessary to destroy mob kingpin Constantine Victor (Val Avery), the IMF preys upon Johnny Costa (James Patterson), Victor's most trusted henchmen. Knowing that Costa would never rat out his boss under normal circumstances, the IMF agents stage a complex scam to convince Costa Read More

The Pink Jungle

Actors: James Garner, Eva Renzi, George Kennedy, Nigel Green, Michael Ansara

Synopsis: This combination romantic comedy and political satire finds fashion photographer Ben Morris (James Garner) traveling to Latin American for an assignment with the beautiful model Alison (Eva Renzi). Their arrival in a small village draws suspicions from Colonel Ceyala (Fabrizio Mioni). The Colonel Read More

Mission: Impossible: The Execution

Actors: Peter Graves, Barbara Bain, Martin Landau, Greg Morris, Peter Lupus

Synopsis: Racketeer Lewis Parma (Vincent Gardenia) intends to take control of the food distribution industry and pose exorbitant consumer prices. To destroy Parma, the IMF agents must extract information from the gang leader's most trusted lieutenant, a man named Ducho (Luke Askew). The plan hinges upon a Read More

The Brotherhood

Actors: Kirk Douglas, Alex Cord, Irene Papas, Luther Adler, Susan Strasberg

Synopsis: In Martin Ritt's The Brotherhood, Kirk Douglas plays Frank Ginetta, an old-line Mafioso who resents the newer policies encouraged by his younger brother Vince (Alex Cord). Frank resists all attempts at modernizing his operation, whereupon Vince cajoles his father-in-law Dominick Bertolo (Luther Adler Read More

Faces

Actors: John Marley, Gena Rowlands, Lynn Carlin, Seymour Cassel

Synopsis: Faces is right: this definitive John Cassavetes film consists almost exclusively of tight, uncomfortable close-ups. It takes place in the fourteenth year of the marriage of Richard (John Marley) and Maria (Lynn Carlin). Neither husband nor wife is content with the conditions that prevail; Maria Read More

The Fugitive: Run the Man Down

Synopsis: As "Tom Anderson", Kimble (Richard Kimble) finds himself sharing a freight car with a seriously wounded man named Bantam (Edward Asner). Kimble helps Bantam make his way to a remote mountain cabin, only to find out that his companion is the head of a bank-robbery gang, and that the cabin is the Read More

Hombre

Actors: Paul Newman, Fredric March, Richard Boone, Diane Cilento, Cameron Mitchell

Synopsis: Yes, Paul Newman is a blue-eyed Indian in Hombre, but this apparent ethnic error is carefully justified in the body of the story. Newman plays a white man who was raised by the Apaches, and ever since has straddled two worlds, feeling truly comfortable in neither. While riding a stagecoach, Newman Read More

The F.B.I.: The Cave-In

Synopsis: Determined that his grandson Ed (Buck Taylor) will attend school rather than follow family tradition and become a miner, old Tom Rule (John McIntire) decides to sabotage the New Mexico mine where Ed works. What Tom doesn't know is that the mine is located near a huge deposit of tungsten, a mineral Read More

The F.B.I.: The Forests of the Night

Synopsis: This episode is set in a remote Oregon community plagued by a drought that has dragged on for over three months. A local religious sect headed by Adam MacDonald (John Anderson) has managed to incur the wrath of some bigoted townsfolk, who go out of their way to torment and persecute McDonald and Read More

Assault on a Queen

Actors: Frank Sinatra, Virna Lisi, Anthony Franciosa, Richard Conte, Alf Kjellin

Synopsis: Assault on a Queen is a complex, exciting crime-caper film in which a gang of clever mercenaries try to rob the famous luxury liner, the Queen Mary. Mark Brittain (Frank Sinatra) is hired by wealthy Italian adventuress Rosa Lucchesi (Verna Lisi) and her German partner-in-crime, Eric Laufftiauer (Alf Kjellin Read More

Wild, Wild Winter

Actors: Gary Clarke, Chris Noel, Steve Franken, Don Edmonds, Suzie Kaye

Synopsis: Directed by versatile standup comedian Lenny Weinrib, Wild Wild Winter is more palatable in its comic scenes than its musical interludes. Essentially a snowbound imitation of American-International's Beach Party series, the film stars such passing fancies of the 1960s as Gary Clarke, Chris Noel Read More

The Fugitive: The Chinese Sunset

Synopsis: As "Jack Fickett", Kimble (David Janssen) lands a general-purpose job at a motel called "The Chinese Sunset." Unfortunately, the motel is currently under police surveillance, due to the presence of big-time bookie Eddie Slade (Paul Richards) and his slovenly girl friend Penelope (Laura Devon). Read More

Nevada Smith

Actors: Steve McQueen, Karl Malden, Brian Keith, Arthur Kennedy, Suzanne Pleshette

Synopsis: Henry Hathaway's film is based on a character from Harold Robbins' The Carpetbaggers, who, in turn, based it on cowboy actor Ken Maynard. Set in the West of the 1890s, the film opens with the torture and murder of the parents of Max Sand (Steve McQueen) by a trio of gunslingers seemingly motivated Read More

Satan's Bed

Synopsis: Yoko Ono, best known for her avant-garde music, art, and her marriage to John Lennon, stars in this low-budget thriller that tells the story of a pusher's girl friend who finds herself entangled in a deadly web after her lover decides to stop selling dope. He is then pursued by three heroine Read More

The Munsters: Herman, the Master Spy

Synopsis: During a family jaunt to the beach, Herman (Fred Gwynne) goes scuba diving with full regalia. No sooner has he submerged than Herman is scooped up by a net cast from a Russian submarine. The Soviet sailors are thrilled at their "catch", believing that they've at last found the Missing Link. But a Read More

The Fugitive: Wings of an Angel

Synopsis: Season Three of The Fugitive finds Richard Kimble (David Janssen), wrongly accused of his wife's murder, still on the lam from the relentless Lt. Gerard (Barry Morse), still desperately searching for the One-Armed Man who committed the murder for which Kimble was condemned to death. Now using the Read More

The Hallelujah Trail

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Lee Remick, Jim Hutton, Pamela Tiffin, Donald Pleasence

Synopsis: In The Hallelujah Trail, Lee Remick plays temperance leader Cora Templeton Massingale, who is determined to halt a shipment of whiskey headed for Denver. The shipment is being escorted by the US cavalry, under the guidance of Col. Thadeus Gearhardt (Burt Lancaster). As the Denver miners thirstily Read More

Sylvia

Actors: Carroll Baker, George Maharis, Joanne Dru, Peter Lawford, Viveca Lindfors

Synopsis: Carroll Baker, the Sharon Stone of the sixties, plays another classy-looking blonde with a sordid background in Sylvia. Millionaire Peter Lawford is about to marry the glamorous but secretive Sylvia (Baker). Before taking the plunge, he hires private eye George Maharis to do a background check on Read More

The Fugitive: Moon Child

Synopsis: Now calling himself "Bill Martin", Kimble (David Janssen) arrives in a town where several women have fallen victim to a serial killer. A local vigilante committee, by nature suspicious of all outsiders, immediately assumes that Kimble is responsible for the killing spree. Joanne Mercer (June Read More

The Munsters: The Midnight Ride of Herman Munster

Synopsis: Herman (Fred Gwynne) falls asleep in the Munster Koach, inadvertently leaving the keys in the ignition. Shortly thereafter, the vehicle is stolen by two crooks, to be used as the getaway car in a bank robbery. Accidentally taken along for the ride, Herman gets mixed up in the bank heist when the Read More

Hud

Actors: Paul Newman, Melvyn Douglas, Patricia Neal, Brandon de Wilde, John Ashley, Whit Bissell

Synopsis: Having been burned by compromises to censors on his earlier films Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Sweet Bird of Youth, Paul Newman decided to star in as uncompromising a property as he could find. That property was Hud, inspired by a portion of Larry McMurtry's novel, Horseman Pass By. Hud Bannon (Newman Read More

Love with the Proper Stranger

Actors: Natalie Wood, Steve McQueen, Edie Adams, Herschel Bernardi, Tom Bosley

Synopsis: Taken for granted by her Italian family, New Yorker Natalie Wood seeks solace in the arms of irresponsible jazz musician Steve McQueen. She becomes pregnant, but doesn't expect McQueen to marry her; all she wants is enough money to pay for an illegal abortion (this is ten years before Roe v. Read More

Maverick: Poker Face

Synopsis: In a variation on the classic Guy de Maupassant short story "Boule de Suif", gambler Bart Maverick (Jack Kelly) is ostracized by his more "respectable" fellow passengers during a stagecoach ride. But when the coach is held up by a vicious bandit, the passengers must literally put their lives in Read More

Too Late Blues

Actors: Bobby Darin, Stella Stevens, Everett Chambers, Cliff Carnell, Seymour Cassel

Synopsis: After his pioneering independent film Shadows (1960), actor/writer/director John Cassavetes made his major studio directorial debut with this gritty, low-key drama about jazz musicians. Bobby Darin plays John "Ghost" Walefield, a pianist who scuffles from gig to gig with his band, trying to keep Read More

Requiem for a Heavyweight

Actors: Muhammad Ali, Anthony Quinn, Jackie Gleason, Mickey Rooney, Julie Harris, Stanley Adams

Synopsis: One of the most memorable sports dramas because of its strong character development, Requiem for a Heavyweight is carried by Anthony Quinn as the washed-up boxer Mountain Rivera, and Jackie Gleason as his sleazy manager, Maish Rennick. In the opening scenes, Cassius Clay -- before he became Muhammad Ali Read More

The Untouchables: A Seat on the Fence

Synopsis: John McIntire appears as radio commentator Loren Hall, a character rumored to be based on The Untouchables' rat-a-tat narrator Walter Winchell. Relying heavily on his gangland connections, Hall dispatches several tantalizing bulletins about a mob-connected drug operation which has been robbing Read More

Have Gun, Will Travel: The Gold Bar

Synopsis: Paladin (Richard Boone) is hired by a bombastic banker named Throckton (Val Avery) who wants to find out who has stolen a gold bar. On the trail, Paladin is met by Mr. Turner (John Fiedler) meek bank teller who swiped the gold in hopes of pursuing a life of carefree luxury. Now disillusioned and Read More

The Twilight Zone: Night of the Meek

Actors: Art Carney, John Fiedler, Burt Mustin, Robert Lieb, Meg Wylie

Synopsis: Twilight Zone's Yuletide offering for the 1960-61 season was this videotaped episode. Art Carney stars as Henry Corwin, a philosophical, booze-guzzling department store Santa Claus. Dismissed from his job, the disgruntled Corwin stumbles across a strange-looking bag, one that profoundly changes Read More

Bonanza: Breed of Violence

Actors: Lorne Greene, Pernell Roberts, Michael Landon, Dan Blocker, John Ericson

Synopsis: To escape her strict and oppressive father Sheriff Kincaid (Val Avery), headstrong Dolly (Myrna Fahey) rebelliously courts disaster by associating with disreputable men. On this occasion, Dolly skips town with rakishly charming Vince Dagen (John Ericson), blissfully unaware that Vince is an Read More

The Untouchables: The Underworld Bank

Synopsis: This episode boasts the presence of two "Lieutenant Columbos": Thomas Mitchell, who created the role of disheveled detective Columbo in a 1960 theatrical production, and Peter Falk, who made the character internationally famous in a popular TV series. Mitchell is cast as Milo Sullivan, a gangland Read More

The Magnificent Seven

Actors: Yul Brynner, Eli Wallach, Steve McQueen, Horst Buchholz, Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn, Brad Dexter, James Coburn

Synopsis: Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai (1954) is westernized as The Magnificent Seven. Yul Brynner plays Chris, a mercenary hired to protect a Mexican farming village from its annual invasion by bandit Calvera (Eli Wallach). As Elmer Bernstein's unforgettable theme music (later Read More

Last Train From Gun Hill

Actors: Kirk Douglas, Anthony Quinn, Carolyn Jones, Earl Holliman, Brad Dexter

Synopsis: Just outside the small town of Pauley, a Native American woman is attacked by two riders on horseback, raped, and killed. Her husband, Matt Morgan (Kirk Douglas), the town marshal, has only two clues to their identity, a fancy saddle with the initials "C.B." that one of the men left behind, and Read More

The Long, Hot Summer

Actors: Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Anthony Franciosa, Orson Welles, Lee Remick

Synopsis: While often regarded as one of America's greatest novelists, William Faulkner produced work that did not always translate well to the screen; it's ironically appropriate that this movie, based on several of Faulkner's short stories, is often regarded as one of the best films based on his work Read More

King Creole

Actors: Elvis Presley, Carolyn Jones, Walter Matthau, Dolores Hart, Dean Jagger

Synopsis: Elvis Presley delivers one of his finest early performances in King Creole. Elvis plays a teenager named Danny Fisher, who is forced to drop out of school to help support his ineffective father (Dean Jagger). Drawn to trouble like a magnet, Danny is saved from a jail term by New Orleans Read More

Hallmark Hall of Fame: There Shall Be No Night

Actors: Charles Boyer, Katharine Cornell, Ray Walston, Bradford Dillman, Theodore Bikel

Synopsis: First staged on Broadway in 1940 with Alfred Lunt, Lynn Fontanne and Montgomery Clift in the starring roles, Robert Sherwood's Pulitzer Prize-winning play There Shall Be No Night was originally set in Finland in the years before the outbreak of WW2. For this Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation, the Read More

Edge of the City

Actors: John Cassavetes, Sidney Poitier, Jack Warden, Kathleen Maguire, Ruby Dee

Synopsis: Edge of the City is a modern morality play, acted out in the railyards of New York. AWOL soldier John Cassavetes takes a job as a railroad worker, where he is taunted and bullied by supervisor Jack Warden, a union functionary appointed by the Mob. Cassavetes befriends his African-American Read More

The Harder They Fall

Actors: Humphrey Bogart, Rod Steiger, Jan Sterling, Mike Lane, Max Baer, Jersey Joe Walcott, Edward Andrews

Synopsis: An obviously ailing Humphrey Bogart made his final screen appearance in The Harder They Fall. Adapted from a novel by Budd Schulberg, the film is a thinly disguised a clef account of the Primo Carnera boxing scandal. Bogart is cast as unemployed newspaperman Eddie Willis, who sells his soul down Read More

The Fuller Brush Girl

Actors: Lucille Ball, Eddie Albert, Carl Benton Reid, Gale Robbins, Jeff Donnell

Synopsis: Hot on the heels of such Red Skelton slapstick comedies as The Fuller Brush Man and The Yellow Cab Man came The Fuller Brush Girl, starring Lucille Ball in a fascinating dry run for her wacky "Lucy Ricardo" TV character. Unable to hold a job because of her tendency to get into trouble, Sally Read More