Curt Conway Movies

San Francisco is held in thrall by a professional arsonist who burns down businesses for insurance purposes. Detectives Stone (Karl Malden) and Keller (Michael Douglas) enter the story when one of the arsonist's assignments results in the deaths of two firefighters. A number of Streets of San Francisco "repeat offenders" make guest appearances in this episode, including Barry Sullivan and Kaz Garas. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This sports drama is based on the true story of professional basketball players Maurice Stokes and Jack Twyman. When Stokes (Bernie Casey), who is black, is rendered comatose and paraplegic by a head injury, his white teammate Twyman (Bo Svenson) exerts himself mightily to raise money for Stokes' physical therapy and medical treatment in the hopes that he will one day walk again. Before the injury, Twyman was just a friendly teammate. Afterwards, he became more or less a member of Stokes' family. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Humorist Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain, makes his third Bonanza appearance, this time in the person of actor Ken Howard (fresh from his Broadway and Hollywood triumph in the musical 1776). As editor of the Virginia City Enterprise, Clemens is determined to prove that a government assayer is guilty of fraud and murder. Because he won't reveal his source in court, Clemens loses a libel suit, whereupon he enlists the aid of Ben and Joe Cartwright to bring the villain (who in the interim has committed another killing) to justice. The episode's closing scene, involving an outraged lady stagecoach passenger, is priceless. The supporting cast includes Dana Elcar as Merrick, Phil Kenneally as McNabb, Walter Burke as Campbell, Staats Cotsworth as Judge Hale, Richard Bull as Goodman, and Stacy Keach Sr. as Lawyer Prentiss. Written by Stanley Roberts, "The 26th Grave" was the first Bonanza episode to be filmed for the series' fourteenth season, but was shown as the eighth installment on October 31, 1972. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Telly Savalas guest-stars as Charles Hackett, the richest man in the world. Accustomed to getting what he wants, Hackett now covets the Ponderosa. When Ben Cartwright refuses to sell, Hackett uses every method at his disposal-fair and foul-to force Ben off his own property. But in so doing, Hackett all but destroys the one person in the world he genuine cares about: his beloved wife Maria (Linda Lawson). Though not the final episode in which series regular Pernell Roberts appeared, this was the final one to be telecast, on April 18, 1965. "To Own the World" was written by Ed Adamson. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Travelling under the name of "Richard Clark", Kimble (David Janssen) is arrested for hitchhiking by Marshall Joe Bob Simms (Pat Hingle). Though he enjoys a reputation as a prince of a fellow, Simms is actually a scheming sadist who uses prisoners like Kimble as slave labor, forcing them to work on a town park that the Marshal hopes will advance his political career. Though he manages to leave town after serving his time, Kimble returns to make Simms pay the penalty for the death of another prisoner (Tom Skerritt)--thereby placing his own life in jeopardy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Matt Weaver (George Segal) returns home after fighting for the South in the Civil War to his home in the New Mexico territory. He discovers that in his absence his ancestral house and land have been sold by Sam Brewster (Pat Hingle), an unscrupulous land developer. Matt tries to kill Sam, but when the attempt fails, Matt barricades himself in the place he once called home. Sam sends for the colorful hired gun Jules Gaspard D'Estaing (Yul Brynner), a well-educated dandy whose mother was a black slave and father was a Creole. Jules is as adept with card and piano playing as he is with a six gun. When Jules gets drunk and tears up the town, Sam tries to make a truce with Matt to get rid of the deadly drifter. Janice Rule also appears, along with Bert Freed in his familiar role as the local sheriff. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

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) is a young Texas rancher who lives with his cattleman father Homer (Melvyn Douglas) and his hero-worshipping nephew Lon (Brandon DeWilde). Hud is an amoral, cold-hearted creature; his father, who holds Hud responsible for the death of his other son, tries to imbue Lon with a sense of decency and responsibility to others, but Lon is devoted to Hud and isn't inclined to listen. When hoof and mouth disease shows up in one of the elder Bannon's cows, Hud is all for selling the herd before the government inspectors find out. But Homer orders the cattle destroyed (the film's most harrowing sequence), driving an even deeper wedge between himself and Hud. Finally, Hud steps over the line by attempting to rape Alma (Patricia Neal), the earthy but warm-hearted housekeeper. Paul Newman was so repellantly brilliant as an unregenerate heel that his Oscar nomination for Hud was a foregone conclusion. Although Newman lost the Oscar to Sidney Poitier in Lilies of the Field, Oscars did go to Neal for Best Actress, Douglas for Best Supporting Actor, and cinematographer James Wong Howe. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Accused of cowardice in battle by Sgt. John Metcalf (guest star Robert Culp), Pvt. Kirby (Jack Hogan) faces both a court martial and a firing squad. Though Kirby insists that he retreated during a battle on Hill 256 in the face of heavy machine-gun fire, Metcalf claims that no such guns existed. With only 48 hours at their disposal, Saunders (Vic Morrow) and Caje (Pierre Jalbert) make a treacherous return visit to Hill 256, in search of the evidence that will free their comrade. Though series costar Rick Jason does not appear in this episode, future regular Conlan Carter, aka "Doc", shows up as an MP. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Though the producers of The Untouchables had promised that their fourth season would have less violence and more humanity than in previous years, that season's opening episode was hardly in the "kinder, gentler" category. No sooner had the episode gotten under way than a likeable lug named Hap Levinson, dressed in a Santa Claus costume and handing out presents on Christmas Eve, is gunned down in full view of several wide-eyed orphans (one of whom is played by an unbilled, pre-"Eddie Munster" Butch Patrick). Why would anyone kill a nice guy like Hap, whose only connection to the Underworld appeared to be the fact that he managed a nightclub owned by mobster Mike Volney (Murvyn Vye)? As the story progresses, Elliot Ness learns the awful truth about good ol' Hap, and he intends to use what he knows to put Volney out of business for keeps. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Four-time Emmy Award-winning actress Colleen Dewhurst and Tony Award-winner Myron McCormick star in this performance of the classic John Steinbeck play concerning a veteran circus performer who is crushed to learn that he will soon die without having ever fathered a child. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Wind Across the Everglades represents the once-in-a-lifetime collaboration between director Nicholas Ray and screenwriter Budd Schulberg, and a strange little picture it is indeed. In his second film appearance, Christopher Plummer plays bibulous 19th-century Florida game warden Walt Murdock, who declares war on the poachers in his region. This brings him in direct conflict with the legendary Cottonmouth (Burl Ives), the spiritual leader of a group of illegal birdhunters. The highly eccentric supporting cast includes Gypsy Rose Lee as a sensuous farm wife, boxer "Two Ton" Tony Galento as a lout named Beef, circus clown Emmett Kelly as the much-married Bigamy Bob, novelist Mackinlay Kantor as the regional judge, and Peter Falk in his film debut, as an owlish writer. After Wind Across the Everglades, Nick Ray's Johnny Guitar will seem as antiseptic as Heidi. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Though Humphrey Bogart is the official star of Knock on Any Door, the film is essentially a showcase for Columbia's newest young male discovery John Derek. The first production of Bogart's Santana company, the film casts Bogart as attorney Andrew Morton. A product of the slums, Morton is persuaded to take the case of underprivileged teenager Nick Romano (Derek), who has been arrested on a murder charge. Through flashbacks, Morton demonstrates that Romano is more a victim of society than a natural-born killer. Though this defense strategy does not have the desired result on the jury thanks to the badgering of DA Kernan (George Macready), Morton does manage to arouse sympathy for the plight of those trapped by birth and circumstance in a dead-end existence. As Nick Romano, John Derek would never be better, nor would ever again play a character who struck so responsive a chord with the audience. Nick's oft-repeated credo--"Live fast, die young, and leave a good-looking corpse"--became the clarion call for a generation of disenfranchised youth. Director Nicholas Ray would later expand on themes touched upon in Knock on a Any Door in his juvenile delinquent "chef d'oeuvre" Rebel without a Cause. Viewers are advised to watch for future TV personalities Cara Williams and Si Melton in uncredited minor roles. Knock on Any Door spawned a belated sequel in 1960, Let No Man Write My Epitaph. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

"This boy...and this girl...were never properly introduced to the world we live in." With this superimposed opening title, director Nicholas Ray inaugurates his first feature, They Live by Night. Farley Granger and Cathy O'Donnell play a "Bonnie and Clyde"-type fugitive couple, who in trying to escape their past are hell-bent down the road to Doom. Despite their criminal activities, Bowie (Granger) and Keechie (O'Donnell) are hopelessly naïve, fabricating their own idyllic dream world as the authorities close in. The entrapment -- both actual and symbolic -- of the young misfit couple can now be seen as a precursor to the dilemma facing James Dean in Ray's 1955 film Rebel Without a Cause. A box-office disappointment upon its first release, They Live by Night has since gained stature as one of the most sensitive and least-predictable entries in the film noir genre. The film was based on a novel by Edward Anderson, and in 1974 was filmed by Robert Altman under its original title, Thieves Like Us. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide