Frank de Kova Movies

Suffering from an extremely overactive imagination -- fueled by the Halloween season and his addiction to dime novels -- Albert (Matthew Laborteaux) dreams that he and Laura (Melissa Gilbert) are kidnapped by Indians. The plot thickens when Albert is mistaken for the chief's son and, as such, is expected to lead his tribe in an attack against Walnut Grove. And back in the "real" world, little Carrie (a role shared by twins Lindsay and Sidney Greenbush) is given a good scare by her even littler sister Gracie (likewise played by twins, Wendi and Brenda Turnbaugh). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After witnessing a murder committed by notorious mob hitman Del Kane (Madison Arnold), Angel (Stuart Margolin) is placed in protective custody by the authorities. Much to the dismay and disgust of Jim Rockford (James Garner), Angel is set up in a luxurious hotel with unlimited room service. And much to the dismay and disgust of the cops, Angel's testimony is discredited and Kane goes free! Now it's up to Jim to save Angel from being bumped off himself. . .and he ever gets out of this mess alive, Angel hopes to write a book about his near-death experience. Future Simon & Simon star Gerald McRaney appears as a harried DA in this episode, which represents perhaps the only instance in TV history wherein a character is tied to a freeway trestle. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Crossfire stars James Franciscus as police officer Rossi, who is thrown off the force for possession of narcotics. Disgraced in the eyes of everyone, including his own partner, Rossi descends into a life of crime. But--and this will come as a shock to anyone who's never seen a Humphrey Bogart picture--the drug bust was fabricated to allow Rossi to function as an undercover operative. His job: Locate and arrest the syndicate Big Boy. Adding fuel to the fire is the fact that Rossi's late brother was a mob functionary. Crossfire was yet another TV pilot film for yet another unsold James Franciscus weekly. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Inspector Erskine (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) poses as a caterer for a Syndicate wedding. In this capacity, Erskine hopes to gather information about a bloody internal power play instigated by Mob functionary Ed Haynes (Alex Cord). But the wedding may never come off--certainly not if Haynes is able to pull off his plan to murder the father of the bride, Boss Faber (Frank DeKova), just before the exchange of vows! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The second season of F Troop is filmed in color instead of black-and-white, and the ballad and action montage which opened each season-one episode has been replaced by a simpler opening title, featuring caricatures of the cast members rendered by MAD magazine's Mort Drucker. Otherwise, it is business as usual in the 19th century cavalry outpost of Fort Courage, as enterprising Sgt. O'Rourke (Forrest Tucker) and Cpl. Agarn (Larry Storch), in league with peace-loving Hekawi Indian chief Wild Eagle (Frank DeKova), manage a vast array of questionable business concerns right under the nose of Fort Courage's clueless, clumsy commanding officer, Captain Wilton Parmenter (Ken Berry). Meanwhile, curvaceous trading-post operator Wrangler Jane (Melody Patterson) persists in her efforts to arouse Parmenter's romantic nature, to no avail. That F Troop is a comedy rather than a Western is once again made abundantly clear in its choice of guest stars. In the episode "The Great Troop Robbery," Milton Berle appears as intrepid Indian detective Wise Owl. "Where Were You at the Last Massacre" features Phil Harris as 147-year-old Indian warrior Flaming Arrow, who vividly recalls his meeting with the wife of President James Madison ("Hello, Dolly!"). "The Singing Mountie" stars Paul Lynde as the title character, a devastating takeoff of movie tenor Nelson Eddy. "V Is for Vampire" spotlights Vincent Price as a Dracula-like stranger who may or may not have kidnapped Wrangler Jane. "Bye Bye Balloon" finds Harvey Korman as stiff-necked Prussian officer Heinrich Von Zippel, whose attempt at lighter-than-air flight elicits the now-classic line from Wild Eagle, "It...is...balloon!" And "That's Show Biz" is a deliciously anachronistic outing featuring the singing group the Factory Rock Quartet, and highlighted by Melody Patterson's rendition of Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man" -- some 90 years before it was written. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Filmmaker George Stevens chose Monument Valley, Utah for his exterior sequences in The Greatest Story Ever Told, this ($20 million) adaptation of Fulton Oursler's best-selling book. The "Greatest Story" is, of course, the life of Jesus Christ, played herein by Max Von Sydow. The large supporting cast includes Dorothy McGuire as Mary, Claude Rains as Herod the Great, Jose Ferrer as Herod Antipas, Charlton Heston as John the Baptist, Donald Pleasence as Satan (identified only as "The Dark Hermit"), David McCallum as Judas Iscariot, Sidney Poitier as Simon of Cyrene, Telly Savalas as Pontius Pilate and Martin Landau as Caiaphas. Even Robert Blake as Simon the Zealot, Jamie Farr as Thaddaeus, and motorcyle-flick veteran Richard Bakalyan as Dismas, the repentant thief, are well-suited to their roles. Originally roadshown at 260 minutes, Greatest Story Ever Told was later available in a 195-minute version. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One year before her Oscar-winning performance in Hud, Patricia Neal guest-starred in this Untouchables episode as torch singer Maggie Storm (and never mind that we never hear her sing a note at any time). Maggie is the featured entertainer at the 808 Club, a night spot mentioned by dying drug peddler Benny Rivas (Herman Rudin) after a shootout with the Untouchables. Following this clue, Elliot Ness (Robert Stack) pays a visit to the club, thereby renewing an old acquaintance with Maggie (they'd been "friendly enemies" during Probibition). Ness would like to believe that Maggie isn't involved in the blatant drug trafficking that goes on at the club, but the evidence is stacked against her. Even so, she isn't the real villain of the piece: that honor is reserved for an unsavory character named Vince Shyre (Vic Morrow). Joseph Ruskin makes his first series appearance as the infamous Louis "Lepke" Buchalter. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After stealing a million dollars from the burning ocean liner "Morro Castle", Cuban thief Valentine Ferrar is pursued by by both Elliot Ness (Robert Stack) and underworld "judge" Foley (Richard Devon). Seeking a means of escape without detective, Ferrar answers a classified ad from widow Lucy Wagnall (Joan Blondell), who is seeking a driver for her annual cross-country trip to celebrate her wedding anniversary. Things take a macabre, Hitchcock-like turn when Mrs. Wagnall reveals that she has plans of her own for the unwitting Ferrar--leading to a fateful rendezvous between the duplicitous widow and the sinister Foley. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Prolific director Joseph Pevney is better known for his next venture -- the Star Trek television series -- than this conventional docudrama on mobster "Dutch" Schultz (played by Vic Morrow). Rather than take the focus of 1997's Hoodlum, in which Schultz's attempt to move into Harlem is thwarted, the events leading to the demise of the nearly illiterate, Bronx-born, "king of beer" are stressed. His affair with Iris Murphy (Leslie Parrish) also gets front-and-center treatment when Iris leaves her policeman husband to hook up with Schultz, only to degenerate into alcoholism. To the credit of the director, the repugnant Schultz (whose real name was Arthur Flegenheimer) is not romanticized, even though the legend of his "buried treasure" and the literary non-sequitur of his famous, 1935 deathbed ramblings would tend to lure anyone into digressions. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In his third Untouchables appearance, Nehemiah Persoff impersonates another real-life gangland figure, in this case the notorious "beer baron" Waxey Gordon. Riding high on the hog after cornering the New Jersey beer market, Waxey has no compunction about killing or double-crossing everyone in sight to advance his career--and even manages to dally with two sexy chorines in the process. But Ness isn't about to turn down the heat on Waxey, and by episode's end he has managed to come up with a novel method of gathering enough evidence to beard the "baron" in his own den. This is the episode in which a mob conclave is staged in the manner of a medieval banquet, replete with a "castle", a battalion of lackeys and a baroque musical score. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This effective gangster film on the notorious New York mobster Jack "Legs" Diamond is interspersed with moments of comic relief and was released just a few months after The Purple Gang shot their way across the silver screens in the U.S. Ironically, that gang and Diamond met their ends in the same year, 1931, and their rise was largely due to Prohibition. "Legsie" (Ray Danton) gets his name because he was a dancer, but he gets his reputation because he double-crosses anyone. He is a psychopath who works his way up the body count to the top of his own network of rackets. Along the way he meets and marries his wife Alice Schiffer (Karen Steele) and survives three attempts on his life that send him to the hospital each time. His reputation for "invulnerability," the inability of the police to touch him, gangsters who kill each other off, the racketeering with union bosses, and the hijacking of liquor shipments are all elements found in this film and The Purple Gang as well. Watch for a young Dyan Cannon in a bit part as Dixie, back when her first name was spelled like everyone else spells Diane. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

The 1962 theatrical release of The Scarface Mob was created from the first two episodes of the famously popular 1959 TV series, The Untouchables. It stars Robert Stack as the courageous agent whose job is to corral the powerful mobster Al Capone. Nevill Brand plays Capone and Walter Winchell adds flavor as the Dragnet-style narrator. ~ All Movie Guide