Abel Fernandez Movies

In this underscripted and not wholly convincing drama, Kevin Bacon plays Jack Casey, an up-and-coming broker who crashes on the stock market one day and cashes in whatever he has left to become a bicycle messenger in San Francisco. Although not exactly a logical alternative, bicycling the hilly streets of S.F. turns out to be dangerous after Casey runs into Gypsy (Rudy Ramos), the street pusher who has the messengers run drugs for him. A series of characters and events drop in and out of the conflict between Gypsy and Casey, including love interest Terri (Jami Gertz) and Casey's friend Hector (Paul Rodriguez). Music dominates throughout the film which includes scenes of breakdancing on bikes. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

It's a seemingly peaceful spring morning in New York City -- graduation day at the Police Academy -- and Police Commissioner Anthony X. Russell (Henry Fonda) is looking forward to giving a speech to the new officers. But all isn't well: Russell's been given apparently incontrovertible evidence that his oldest friend, Chief Inspector Charles Kane (James Whitmore), is shaking down a bar owner, and a black minister (Raymond St. Jacques) is claiming that his son was brutalized when he was picked up for questioning in a rape/assault case. Then Russell gets a call informing him that two first-grade detectives, Daniel Madigan (Richard Widmark) and Rocco Bonaro (Harry Guardino), allowed small-time hood Barney Benesch (Steve Ihnat) to get the drop on them, steal their guns, and escape while they were trying to pick him up for questioning at the request of Brooklyn detectives -- and Benesch is now a suspect in that earlier murder in Brooklyn. Madigan has other problems, including the fact that the commissioner -- his ex-captain -- doesn't trust him, always believing him to be a loose cannon who has taken advantage of the badge in accepting favors and cutting corners where peoples' rights were concerned. Madigan also has a beautiful, upwardly mobile wife (Inger Stevens) who loves him but can't abide all the time his job takes him away from her or crimps her socializing; and he has never fully gotten over Jonesy (Sheree North), a saloon singer he knew before he was married. Madigan and Bonaro are given 72 hours to bring in Benesch and begin beating the bushes for leads. They get help from "Midget" Castiglione (Michael Dunn), a bookmaker and an old enemy of Benesch's, and a nervous, long-haired punk named Hughie (Don Stroud). While the clock ticks away on Madigan's and Bonaro's careers, the commissioner must decide how to deal with Kane, whose father -- also a police officer -- was like his own, and he must also fathom how a four-star chief could be involved with anything as tawdry as pressuring a tavern owner. Russell genuinely believes that there must be "one standard, one rule" for any member of the department, but in the course of this one weekend, he finds this notion shattered by what he discovers about Madigan, King, and himself. Meanwhile, Benesch is still on the loose, acting like a complete psycho and a threat to anyone who crosses his path. Russell's and Madigan's paths finally cross personally, as the detective proves -- and the commissioner discovers -- just how good a cop he is. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

In hopes of breathing life into the series' dormant ratings, ABC moved The Untouchables from the Thursday to Tuesday evening, removing the threat of NBC ratings-grabbing Sing Along with Mitch and counterprogramming the now four-year-old crime drama opposite the presumably "soft" competion of The Dick Powell Show and The Jack Benny Program. Alas, both of the competing programs held tightly to their timeslots, and The Untouchables was cancelled. In the months before the inevitable axing, the series' producers tried to hypo the show by encouraging star Robert Stack to lighten up his portrayal of flinty-eyed 1930s treasury agent Elliott Ness and make the character more human and vulnerable. There are also a handful of attempts to generate audience interest by offering potential Untouchables spinoffs. One of these, "Elegy", was planned as the pilot for a series starring Barbara Stanwyck as Lt. Aggie Stewart of the Bureau of Missing Persons. Two others, "Bird in the Hand" and "Jake Dance", were designed as trial balloons for a weekly show featuring Dane Clark as Dr. Victor Garr of the US Public Health Service. And finally, Scott Brady was headlined in "The Floyd Gibbons Story", an effort to transform colorful one-eyed journalist and globetrotter Gibbons into a viable TV-series leading man. More interesting than these failed pilots are the guest appearances by a number of stars in the making during The Untouchables' fourth and final season. The episode "Snowball" featured not only Robert Redford but also Star Trek's future "Chekov" Walter Koenig; Robert Duvall was given ample screen footage in "Blues for a Gone Goose"; and though Lee Marvin is officially the guest star in "A Fist of Five", it was hard to ignore the up-and-coming James Caan in a supporting role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Perhaps inevitably, the more popular the ABC crime drama The Untouchables became, the louder the series' detractors complained. Reaching its ratings peak as America's eighth-most-watched program during its second season, the series, which elaborated in the most violent fashion imaginable on the career of treasury agent Elliot Ness (Robert Stack) as he and his team of "Untouchables" challenged the criminal element of Depression-era Chicago, was besieged by a flock of clean-up-TV advocates, church and school groups, and especially the Italian Anti-Defamation League, which condemned the series for its preponderance of Italian villains. Executive producer Desi Arnaz argued that many of the real-life gangsters were indeed Italian, whereupon their critics counter-argued that the scriptwriters tended to use Italian-sounding names even for the series' fictional bad guys. Everyone from the Longshoreman's Union (which threatened not to deliver the sponsors' product) to singer Frank Sinatra converged upon Arnaz, and there were even rumors that The Mob had put out a contract on the beleagured producer (reportedly, the higher-ups figured that killing Desi wouldn't be worth the trouble). Finally, the producers agreed that, beginning with the series' third season, none of the fictional gangsters would be Italian, and that the genuine Italian miscreants would be counterbalanced with honest, upright and incorruptible Italian-American supporting characters--notably Nick Georgiade in the recurring role of "Untouchable" Enrico Rossi. Highlights of Season Two include Elizabeth Montgomery's bravura, Emmy-nominated portrayal of a duplicitous gun moll in the opening episode, "The Rusty Heller Story"; "Jack 'Legs' Diamond", with future Law&Order star Steven Hill in the title role and Robert Carricart as Lucky Luciano; "Augie 'The Banker" Ciamino" with Keenan Wynn, who ironically had played straight-arrow "Untouchable" Joe Fuselli in the series' two-hour pilot; and "Mr. Moon", which garnered a great deal of critical attention due the starring performance by 23-year-old Victor Buono. And as had happened with the first season "The Unhired Assassin", the second season of The Untouchables is distinguished by another elaborate two-part episode, "The Big Train", which brings Neville Brand back as Ness' number one nemesis Al Capone--and which got the producers into trouble (again!) by suggesting that the incarcerated Capone had been given preferential treatment in the Atlanta Pentitentiary. Also in the tradition of "The Unhired Assassin", "The Big Train" was later released theatrically as Alcatraz Express. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Introduced as a highly successful two-party dramatization on the CBS anthology Desilu Playhouse, The Untouchables officially began its four-season ABC run in the fall of 1959, with Robert Stack returning as grim-visaged 1930s treasury agent Elliot Ness and Neville Brand making token appearances as his nemesis Al Capone ("Big Al" would virtually disappear from the series proper after the Capone estate threatened to sue producer Desi Arnaz for unfairly profiting on the Capone name). The premiere episode, "The Empty Chair", depicts the power struggle to control all illegal activities in Chicago after Capone's arrest for income-tax evasion in 1931. Nehemiah Persoff is the series' first guest star, cast as real-life hoodlum Jake Gusik, while Bruce Gordon is established as Capone's heir apparent Frank Nitti, who would get his own episode, "The Frank Nitti Story" (what else?) a few weeks later. Other genuine lawbreakers depicted during Season One include Ma Barker, played by Claire Trevor in an episode that incurred the wrath of the FBI for suggesting that Ness was largely responsible for Barker's downfall; George "Bugs" Moran, enacted by Lloyd Nolan; Vincent "Mad Dog" Coll, portrayed by Clu Gulager; Dutch Schultz, impersonated by Lawrence Dobkin; and Wally Legenza, cold-blooded leader of the vicious Tri-State Gang, played by William Bendix. The highlight of the season is the two-part "Unhired Assassin", reenacted the unsuccessful attempt by a fanatic named Zangara (Joe Mantell) to assassinate president-elect Franklin Roosevelt; Robert Middleton played Zangara's ultimate victim, Chicago mayor Anton Cermak, in this extended episode, which was later released theatrically as Guns of Zangara. Though The Untouchables never got any higher than 43rd in the ratings during its first season, the series was nonetheless very popular with fans and not so popular with advocates of non-violent television, who would of course become more vocal as the series became more successful in subsequent seasons. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Pork Chop Hill was based on the eyewitness essays of ex-soldier S. L. A. Marshall. The film is set during the Korean "police action." While diplomats argue pointlessly over the shape of the negotiation tables at Panmunjon, United Nations troops bleed and die. Lieutenant Gregory Peck leads a 135-man unit on the attack of the Chinese-held Pork Chop Hill. When reinforcements finally arrive, only 25 of Peck's men survive (and they aren't the usual survivors we've come to expect from earlier, cliché-ridden war films). Among the American troops are such dependable performers as Harry Guardino, Woody Strode, Rip Torn, Barry Atwater, George Peppard, Robert Blake and Martin Landau. Former cowboy-star Bob Steele also shows up briefly as an American general. According to director Lewis Milestone, Pork Chop Hill was cut by nearly twenty minutes because the wife of star Gregory Peck felt that her husband made his first entrance too late into the picture. True or not, the film does show signs of post-production tampering, with flashes of several excised scenes showing up under the main title credits. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this 4th episode of Walt Disney's six-part miniseries The Saga of Andy Burnett, Andy (Jerome Courtland) and the Mountain Men have struck out for the New Mexico outpost of Taos. While making their way through the unmapped Rocky Mountains, Andy and his pals Joe (Jeff York), Jack (Andrew Duggan) and Old Bill (Slim Pickens) decide to do a little fur-trapping. Alas, before long the foursome have been captured by the Snake Indians. "Land of Enemies" originally aired on the Disneyland anthology series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the fifth episode of Walt Disney's six-part miniseries The Saga of Andy Burnett, Andy (Jerome Courtland and his fellow Mountain Men have been captured by the Blackfeet Indians. Through careful manipulation of his telescope, Andy convinces his captors that he is a friend of the Sun God. Chief Kiasak (Abel Fernandez) agrees to spare the lives of Andy his pals--but they're not out of the woods yet, thanks to jealous medicine man Mad Wolf (Iron Eyes Cody). "The White Man's Medicine" originally aired on the Disneyland anthology series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The title character in this episode is James Brunswick (Tom Helmore), who has left London behind to take over the Montana ranch he has inherited. Paladin (Richard Boone) is hired to guide Brunswick and his rambunctious Americanized cousin Felicia (Alix Talton) to their new property, despite the resistance of the local citizenry--and the hostility of the Native Americans in the vicinity. With Paladin's help, the Englishman ultimately wins the respect and support of his new neighbors...but it isn't easy by a long shot! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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 the river when he signs on as press agent for slimy fight manager Nick Benko (Rod Steiger). It is Willis' job to stir up publicity for Benko's newest protégé, Argentinian boxer Toro Moreno (Mike Lane). Benko's boy quickly rises to the top of his profession, though everybody but Toro knows that all the fights have been fixed. Upon learning that Benko intends to bilk Toro of his earnings, Willis regains his integrity, tells the wide-eyed young pugilist the truth, then sits down to write a searing expose of the fight racket. Jan Sterling costars as Willis' estranged wife, while real-life boxers Jersey Joe Walcott and Max Baer are suitably cast as Toro's trainer and ring opponent, respectively. There is also a heartbreaking cameo appearance by ex-fighter Joe Greb, cast as a punchdrunk skid row bum. The Harder They Fall originally went out with two different endings: in one, Eddie Willis demanded that boxing be banned altogether, while in the other, Willis merely insisted that there be a federal investigation of the prizefighting business. The videotape version contains the "harder" denouement, while most TV prints end with the "softer" message. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Packaged and sold as an outdoor actioner, Many Rivers to Cross is as much a comedy as anything else. Robert Taylor stars as 18th century trapper Bushrod Gentry, who is himself entrapped into marriage by the spunky Mary Stuart Cherne (Eleanor Parker). Escaping his marital responsibilities (which were impressed upon him on threat of death), Gentry heads into the North Country, with Mary in hot pursuit. Hero and heroine spend the rest of the picture taking turns rescuing each other from hostile Indians. Some of the humor is predicated upon the wholesale slaughter of the "redskins", and as such is a bit hard to take when seen today. Supporting Taylor and Parker are Victor McLaglen as the heroine's burly father, and TV-stars-to be James Arness (Gunsmoke) and Russell Johnson and Alan Hale Jr. (Gilligan's Island). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Devil Goddess was the sixteenth and last of Columbia's "Jungle Jim" series. Johnny Weissmuller, playing "himself" (as he had in the last few films in this series), agrees to help a professor (Selmer Jackson) find a colleague who has disappeared into the jungle. Before you can say "Heart of Darkness", we learn that the missing man (William Griffith) has set himself up as a white god, ruling over a tribe of fire worshippers. The "god's" headquarters is a volcano, long dormant but ripe for eruption. The "goddess" of the title is the daughter (Angela Stevens) of the investigating professor, whom the white despot hopes to marry after bumping off the rest of the search party. Weissmuller and his friends narrowly escape the inflammatory volcano with an unburied treasure in tow. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Alaskan salmon fisherman Matt Kelly (Robert Ryan) doesn't care who he runs over in race to get ahead in life. He even manages to exploit his friendship with Jim Kimmerly (Brian Keith) so he can make time with Kimmerly's fiancee Nicky (Jan Sterling). As a capper to his many misdeeds, Kelly's recklessness results in the loss of Jim's fishing boat during a glacier avalanche. Finally getting wise to himself, Kelly tries to make up for his past perfidy with an all-out act of self-sacrifice. Featured in the cast of Alaska Seas are two TV-stars-to-be: Gene Barry, of Bat Masterson and Burke's Law fame, and Ross Bagdasarian, who as "David Seville" was the creator/mentor of Alvin and the Chipmunks. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide