Darren McGavin Movies

Peter Cookson, Monogram's answer to Jimmy Stewart, stars in Fear, also known as Black Tower Cookson plays a medical student who becomes involved in a murder. Anne Gwynne is the girl who doesn't completely trust Cookson, but helps him out anyway. Also appearing as one of those oh-too-helpful types is Warren William, who died in 1948, suggested that perhaps Black Tower was lensed a few years before its official 1950 release date. Some sources list Black Tower as a PRC production; this is possible, though PRC was defunct by 1950. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The 90-minute TV movie Flag was meant to be a joint spoof of the nighttime serials Dallas and Knots Landing. In this instance, it was "bite the hand that feeds you time": Flag was produced by David Jacobs, creator of both Dallas and Knots, and distributed by Lorimar-Telepictures, which also distributed both above-mentioned programs. Tom Isbell plays Rudy Flag, an idealistic social worker. Rudy's world is set on its ear when he inherits his family's huge international business concerns, bringing him in close contact with the more evil and mercenary branches of the Flag clan (including reliable old patriarchal type Darren McGavin). Moses Gunn costars as Rudy Flag's social worker associate, who hangs around throughout this TV pilot film to keep the hero honest. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A parade of old sitcom stars appear in this made-for-television adaptation of the book by Judy Blume. Peter Hatcher has to suffer through a summer with his worst enemy, Sheila Tubman. Much to his chagrin, his brother Fudge (Luke Taristano) announces that he wants to marry her. The two-hour movie is part of the Fudge television series. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide

Could it be true? Is the U.S. government really hiding an alien spaceship in the mysterious Hangar 18? According to the producers at Sunn Classic Pictures, the answer is yes, and this sci-fi drama sets out to prove it. The trouble begins when an orbiting satellite runs into the UFO and it crashes. Inside are alien bodies, and the President, who is busy with his re-election campaign, is most eager to conceal them. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

At first glance, we were prepared to designate B Must Die as a hybrid TV feature, consisting of two episodes of either The Outsider or Night Stalker. That's because the star of this obscure entry is Darren McGavin, who also headlined the two aforementioned weekly series. Further research revealed, however, that McGavin's character name in B Must Die is "Pal", which doesn't jive with either Outsider or Kolchak. Then we discovered that the film was a tax-writeoff action drama, boasting a convoluted storyline about a political/industrial rebellion in an unnamed South American country. Patricia Neal and Burgess Meredith costar in B Must Die. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Page Fletcher stars as the title character in this 1983-1988 made-for-cable suspense anthology. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

Robert Duvall stars as Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower in this made-for-TV biography, which focuses on his career in the military during World War II as he helped to guide Allied forces to victory. Along with Eisenhower's military exploits and political aspirations, Ike: The War Years also offers a perspective on his person life, in particular his relationship with Kay Summersby (Lee Remick), the driver who later claimed to have had a long-term romantic relationship with him. First broadcast as a multi-part miniseries, Ike: The War Years also stars Dana Andrews, Darren McGavin, Laurence Luckinbill, and Steve Roberts as Franklin D. Roosevelt. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

If there were any doubts that little Shirley Temple was all grown up by 1945, those doubts were disippated by her appearance in Columbia's Kiss and Tell. Based on the mildly risque stage comedy by F. Hugh Herbert, the film casts Temple as impulsive teenager Corliss Archer, who is the only person in on the secret marriage between her GI brother and local girl Mildred Pringle (Virginia Welles). When Mildred becomes pregnant, Corliss can't reveal the marriage, since the Archers and the Pringles aren't overly fond of one another. Thus it is that Corliss herself pretends to be expecting, intending to claim Mildred's baby as her own. She further identifies her next-door boyfriend Dexter Franklin (Jerome Courtland) as the father, opening yet another can of worms. Somehow this mess straightens itself out, but not before several "chancy" scenes and lines of dialogue that must have given the Hollywood censors headaches aplenty. Kiss and Tell (the original play, that is) not only spawned a 1949 movie sequel, A Kiss for Corliss, but also inspired the popular radio and TV sitcom Meet Corliss Archer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Debuting Friday, September 13, 1974 on ABC, the weekly, hour-long sci-fi/fantasy series Kolchak: The Night Stalker was spun off from two well-received feature length entries from the same network's Movie of the Week: The Night Stalker (1971) and The Night Strangler (1973). Starring in both these made-for-TV offerings was Darren McGavin as Carl Kolchak, a fly-by-night newspaper reporter who'd stumbled onto proof of actual paranormal and supernatural activity (a vampire terrorizing Las Vegas in Night Stalker, a werewolf decimating Seattle in Night Strangler), only to have his stories suppressed and himself bullied into silence by nervous police officials and politicians who didn't want to scare away tourists and merchants. By the time the Kolchak series proper began, the title character (still played by McGavin) had been effectively blacklisted by every major publisher in the US, and was forced to work for the Chicago-based Independent News Service, a seat-of-the-pants operation edited by Tony Vincenzo (another carryover from the movie versions). Having likewise been exiled from the higher journalistic circles thanks to Kolchak's "unbelievable" news scoops, Vincenzo harbored a grudge against our hero, but kept him on the payroll all the same. As for Kolchak, he was determined to regain his credibility by filing a story about the Supernatural that could be proven beyond doubt--and of course, he was always foiled when the evidence "mysteriously" vanished at the end of each episode. Making matters worse, Kolchak couldn't even post a "normal" news story, since bizarre and unexplainable things kept happening around him wherever he went. Other regulars included Jack Grinnage as Ron Updike, Independent News' fledgling society reporter who yearned to break into the "big time" and was willing to stab Kolchak in the back to get what he wanted; and Ruth McDevitt as the service's advice columnist Miss Emily Cowles, the only person whom Kolchak could rely upon when things got rough. As for the series' various ghosts, monsters, vampires, mummies and lycanthropes, they were seldom seen full-face but instead lurked in the shadows, in the tradition of the classic Val Lewton "psychological horror" epics of the 1940s (Trivia note: among the series' writers was a young Robert Zemeckis). Although the series enjoyed the built-in following of viewers who'd loved The Night Stalker and The Night Strangler, Kolchak: The Night Stalker languished in the ratings opposite such competition as Police Woman and The Rockford Files. Even if the series had been a hit, however, it would have been scuttled by a lawsuit instigated by Jeff Rice, author of the novel upon which the original Night Stalker was based, who insisted he had not given anyone permission to turn his property into a weekly series. Some thirty years after its cancellation on August 30, 1975, Kolchak: The Night Stalker was revived by the X-Files team under the simplified title Night Stalker, with Stuart Townsend as Carl Kolchak. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The old 1930s song was "Love For Sale;" now it's the 1970s, and, just like cars and condominiums, it's Love for Rent. Lisa Eilbacher is the innocent midwestern girl who comes to wicked old New York looking for her sister Annette O'Toole. O'Toole is now gainfully employed by an "escort bureau" (note those quote marks), and Eilbacher is likewise drawn into this questionable lifestyle. The ad copy for this TV movie notes that the sisters are "forced to face reality", which is more than the scriptwriters did. Not surprisingly, Love for Rent was based on a Playboy magazine story (by Don Pierce). Its initial audience on November 11, 1979, was most likely close to zero, since a rival network was offering the TV premiere of Dog Day Afternoon. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This documentary asks the question, "Do you believe in miracles?" Would you believe a deceased father communicated with his dead child; or a man who answered a plea for help issued over a CB radio that did not exist; or a rancher who had a dream that helped the authorities to locate a lost child; or how about a weeping picture of Jesus aiding a boy with leukemia? This 50-minute presentation, part of a television series hosted by actor Darren McGavin, uses dramatization to explore some of life's extraordinary events and unexplained phenomena, and how these miracles or interventions changed people's lives. It's an upbeat documentary that asks the question, "Do you believe in miracles?" ~ Forrest Spencer, All Movie Guide

Miracles and Other Wonders presents intriguing and entertaining true-life accounts of mysterious, yet factual events that suggest there is a friendly force guiding our way along the journey of life. In volume three of the eight-tape series, an elderly couple helps a young mother with her sick child, then mysteriously vanishes; a war hero's medal leads a man back to his family; and a woman returns from the dead to rescue her neighbors from a fiery blaze. Darren McGavin hosts this look at contemporary "miracles."

~ Sally Barber, All Movie Guide