Robert J. Totten Movies

Robin's Nest is turned over to a Hollywood production crew as a location for a movie starring Magnum's favorite actress Olivia Ross (Dana Wynter) and her perennial costar Jack Martin (Larry Pennell). So entranced is Magnum (Tom Welleck) by the glamorous Olivia that he is willing to endure multiple humiliations as Martin's stunt double. But he hadn't counted on risking his life to solve the mystery behind a "prop" gun which is loaded with real bullets--and which Olivia empties on the hapless Martin! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Tim Conway and Don Knotts, mere supporting characters in the original Apple Dumpling Gang, are promoted to starring roles in the 1979 sequel The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again. Once more cast as clumsy, soft-hearted western outlaws, Conway and Knotts come to the rescue of cavalry private Tim Matheson. The villain, lieutenant Philip Pine, is undermining the authority of Matheson's commander Harry Morgan, and Matheson wants to find out why. Featured performers include Jack Elam as Big Mac and Ruth Buzzi as Tough Kate. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Designed for the regional family trade, Pony Express Rider is a fond harkback to the Saturday afternoon westerns of old. Stewart Paterson plays the title character, a young frontiersman hoping to avenge his father's death. He takes a job with the Pony Express mail service in hopes of running across his dad's murderer. The supporting cast is populated with such always-welcome reliables as Joan Caulfield, Henry Wilcoxon, Ken Curtis, Slim Pickens and Dub Taylor. Pony Express Rider was directed by Robert J. Totten, a specialist in episodic television horse operas. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Red Pony is a 1973 TV-movie adaptation of John Steinbeck's novel, previously filmed for theatrical release in 1949. Henry Fonda and Maureen O'Hara star as a turn-of-century farming couple. Clint Howard plays their 10-year-old son, a rebellious lad constantly at odds with his taciturn father. The catalyst for the ultimate reconciliation of father and son is the magnificent (but foredoomed) red pony whom the boy raises. Farm hand Billy Buck, the colorful character portrayed by Robert Mitchum in the 1949 version of The Red Pony, is missing from this otherwise faithful adaptation, which premiered on March 18, 1973 as a Bell System Family Theatre special. The film would later be honored with a Peabody Award for "Outstanding Dramatic Special." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

John Gavin stars as Santa Fe marshal Ben Cutter, whose homecoming is blighted when he finds his town has been taken over by a Mexican bandit gang. Accompanied by two of the less frightened townsfolk--a small boy (Manuel Padila Jr.) and the boy's mother (Marisa Pavan)--Cutter sets out to rid the town of the interlopers. This TV movie was the pilot for a weekly series, slated for a CBS timeslot. Half a dozen scripts were prepared before the network decided to turn thumbs down. Cutter's Trail was originally telecast in a 90 minute slot, then expanded to two hours for syndication. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Famed anonymous director Alan Smithee (in this case a hybrid of Richard Totten and Don Siegel), directed this turgid western drama concerning Marshal Frank Patch (Richard Widmark), who, even though he has kept the peace in Cottonwood Springs for over twenty years, is now considered a local joke by the town liberals who want some new blood in the Marshall's Office. They get it when Patch shoots the drunken Luke Mills (James Lydon) in self-defense. Now the forces of progress really want Patch out. So much so that the local newspaper editor, Andrew Oxley (Kent Smith) demands his resignation. Patch not only refuses to quit but disgraces Oxley so badly in front of his son Will (Mercer Harris) that Oxley kills himself. Will is now out for blood, but Patch remains stoic, even when his old friend Lou (John Saxon) comes to town to advise him to quit. Patch refuses Lou's suggestion but decides to marry Claire (Lena Horne), the owner of the local saloon and whore house. But an uninvited guest attends the wedding ceremony --Will. And both Will and his gun are loaded. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

When a SAC bomber crashes in a Communist country, the palne's fail-safe mechanism falls into the hands of American defector Paul Shipherd (Bradford Dillman). The IMF agents must retrieve the mechanism before Shipherd inadvertently triggers its self-destruct device. Posing as the husband-and-wife manufacturers of the device, Rollin and Cinnamon arrange to be arrested, the better to gain access to Shipherd's heavily guarded laboratory. Written by William Read Woodfield and Allan Balter, "Recovery" was originally seen on March 17, 1968, as the final episode in Mission: Impossible's second season. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Light on characterization and storyline, this routine wartime drama by director Robert Totten deals with a group of American soldiers and Italian partisans active in northern Italy during World War II. As the war continues around them, the two groups are first fighting separately. The American army patrol is bravely holding out against the Germans, but they are loosing men right and left and will not be able to continue like this for long. Meanwhile, the partisans are fighting their own battles. The two different sectors finally join forces, and for once the Germans have something to worry about. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide