Doug McClure Movies

A gunslinging con man develops a tricky scheme to make a killing at a major poker tournament in this comic Western inspired by the popular television show. Mel Gibson assumes the role of Bret Maverick, the handsome rogue who hopes to cheat his way to success. In need of a large stake to enter a major card competition on a Louisiana steamboat, Maverick decides to take advantage of a few small-town poker players. These include the seemingly sweet Annabelle Bransford (Jodie Foster) and the intimidating Angel (Alfred Molina), neither of whom is too happy about their loss. Things become even more complicated for Maverick when the law gets involved, with Marshal Zane Cooper (James Garner, who played the role of Maverick in the original television series) giving chase. A series of stagecoach chases, complicated cons, and gun battles ensues, with Annabelle and Maverick finding time for plenty of flirtation along the way. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide

Who'd have thought that we'd ever watch Debbie Reynolds and Suzanne Pleshette playing grandmothers? Yet, grannies they are-and very glamorous ones-in the made-for-TV Battling for Baby. A pre-Friends Courteney Cox plays a young mother who decides to go back to work to help pay the bills. Cox's mother, Pleshette and her mother-in-law Reynolds battle over who will have the honor of looking after the baby while the new mom is away. A few "very special" dramatic scenes aside, this is essentially harmless froth, in the tradition of 1950s TV sitcoms. Battling for Baby originally aired January 12, 1992. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A man escapes from a mental hospital to try and clear his name after he is accused of the murder of his girlfriend--the murder which he witnessed. ~ All Movie Guide

Jack Corbett (Ken Wahl) is a journalist who takes to the bottle after a series of setbacks. When his daughter Jessie (Nicole Eggert) is kidnapped during a liquor store robbery, he calls on LAPD Detective Milnor (Doug McClure) for help. When Milnor's efforts prove ineffective, Jack calls on his friend and former Vietnam veteran Phil (George DiCenzo) to seek vengeance in this routine action thriller. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Dorian Beecher (Thom Bray), the new poetry instructor at Cabot Cove's most exclusive prep school, tries to impress the girl of his dreams, Sarah Dupont (Karlene Crockett), by telling her that Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) is his mother. Meanwhile, Nate Findley (Barry Williams), the school's riding instructor and Dorian's rival for Sarah's affections, plots to scare off Dorian by taking a page from Washington Irving's "Legend of Sleepy Hollow." Unfortunately, Nate's impersonation of the fabled Headless Horseman becomes a bit too realistic when his head is lopped off by an antique sword--owned by poor Dorian! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Wealthy metallurgist Harry Mitchell (Roy Scheider) lives to regret his extramarital affair with pretty young Cini (Kelly Preston). A trio of vicious blackmailers (John Glover, Robert Trebor, Clarence Williams III) show Mitchell a videotape of his most recent roll in the sack with Cini. They demand a huge amount of hush money, but Mitchell calls their bluff, going so far as to tell his politicially ambitious wife Barbara (Ann-Margret) about the affair. But the extortionists haven't even gotten started yet. Tying Mitchell to a chair, they force him to watch a tape of Cini being horribly murdered-with the evidence arranged so that Mitchell will be accused of the crime. But Mitchell remains firm in his refusal to pay up, whereupon he mounts a "fight fire with fire" plan all his own. 52 Pick Up was based on a novel by Elmore Leonard, which was previously filmed in 1984 as The Ambassador. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

An hour-long TV special, The Garry Shandling Show 25th Anniversary Special is a parody of late-night talk show anniversary specials, featuring a fictional variety show, hosted by Shandling, that bears a rather striking resemblance to the Johnny Carson era of The Tonight Show. Assisted by a pudgy, bespectacled sidekick, Shandling looks back on the highlights of his late-night show's run, from the classic comedy sketches to the greatest embarrassments and bloopers, including a close call clearly modeled after the infamous Ed Ames tomahawk incident. Over the course of the evening, not everything goes as planned, and a few tensions begin to bubble underneath the surface. The flashback segments are designed to closely resemble the look of television of the appropriate era, from the quality of the video image to the wardrobes and hairstyles. Given its realistic re-creation of late-night talk shows and its occasionally wicked sense of humor, this special can be easily viewed as an early forerunner to Shandling's later, award-winning HBO series, The Larry Sanders Show, which combines the talk show parody with a look at the personality conflicts and chaos behind the cameras. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide

(Burt Reynolds) as J.J. McClure takes off across the country again in this rickety sequel to Cannonball Run. A sheik has offered $1,000,000 to the first driver to reach a destination in Connecticut from Redondo Beach, California, inspiring J.J. and others to go for the gold. With cameos from more name performers than any dozen films together, (Frank Sinatra and the rat pack, Telly Savalas, Susan Anton, Shirley MacLaine, Jackie Chan, Sid Caesar, Marilu Henner, Catherine Bach, etc., etc., etc.), the movie becomes a pastiche and is executed as though no rehearsals were required, or ever happened. A disparate group of people racing to get a lot of money was first successfully exploited in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, a much better film, and with just as many cameos, in fact. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In this thriller, a snoopy and ambitious television news reporter causes an average citizen to become suspected of being a serial killer. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Action star Doug McClure plays for light humor in Nightside. This turned out to be a wise move on McClure's part, because it's next to impossible to take this made-for-TV cop drama seriously. McClure and Michael Cornelison portray two graveyard-shift L.A. patrolmen who must deal with various crises of varying importance on the eve of the USC/UCLA football game. The bane of the cops' existence are the college students who insist upon pulling pregame pranks on their beat. Intended as the pilot for a series, Nightside was first shown on June 8, 1980, where it lost most of its audience to the competing Tony Awards telecast. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Rebels was the second "Operation Prime Time" miniseries to be based on author John Jakes' Kent Family Chronicles (the first was The Bastard). The saga of Philip Kent (Andrew Stevens), illegitimate son of a British blueblood, picks up with Kent fighting in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. Part One of this two-part endeavor busies itself with setting up characters, places and events; Part Two finds Kent and his pal Judson Fletcher (Don Johnson) teaming up to prevent the assassination of General George Washington (Peter Graves). The enormous all-star cast includes Richard Basehart, Doug McClure, Joan Blondell, Tom Bosley, Macdonald Carey, Robert Vaughan, William Daniels and Nehemiah Persoff; William Conrad does off-screen duty as narrator. The Rebels was syndicated to local TV stations beginning the week of May 14, 1979. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide