Harry Sherman Movies

Singer Paula Abdul makes her acting debut in this tense ABC TV movie. Recovering from a vicious attack by a serial rapist, businesswoman Ellen Collier (Paula Abdul) finds comfort and security in her relationship with her loving and supporting new boyfriend, car salesman Jerry Braskin (Adrian Pasdar). But as Ellen slowly comes out of her self-imposed shell, events conspire to persuade her that Jerry is harboring an unsavory secret. By the time Ellen has been confronted with rock-solid evidence that Jerry is the very man who sexually assaulted her, it may be too late to save herself. Based on a true story, Touched by Evil was originally telecast on January 12, 1997. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

I'll Take Romance has nothing to do with the old Grace Moore musical film of the same name. Rather, this 1990 TV movie is about a publicity contest. Dressed in Joan Crawford Chic, Linda Evans plays a Seattle TV meteorologist, assigned to host a contest to find the most romantic man in Puget Sound. Evans' boyfriend Tom Skerritt stews on the sidelines as she wends her way through the studdish contestants. Since Skerritt plays a judge, is there a remote possibility that I'll Take Romance will have a crucial courtroom scene somewhere along the line? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The first of two full-length television sequels which reprise the 1967 original, finds two convicts (Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine) again forced to lead a suicide mission behind enemy lines. This time, they head into Germany to thwart an unbelievable plot to assassinate Hitler. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

It could be said that without the incredible success of the ABC miniseries Holocaust in 1978, CBS might have thought twice before greenlighting the ambitious, three-hour TV docudrama The Wall four years later. Adapted by Millard Lampell from his own 1960 Broadway play, which in turn was inspired by John Hersey's 1950 novel, The Wall is the heartbreaking but inspiring story of the heroic Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943. When it becomes obvious that every Jew in Poland is doomed to be shipped off to the Nazi work and death camps, some 650 members of the newly formed Jewish Fighting Organization mount a last, brave stand against nearly 3000 German soldiers. The story is told through the eyes of Warsaw Jew Dolek Benson (Tom Conti, in his first American TV appearance), who is a passive observer of the atrocities all around him until he learns the truth about the Nazi's "resettlement" program. Rachel Roberts, cast as a former schoolteacher, made her final appearance in this film; she passed away shortly after production ended. Filmed on location in Sosnowiec, Poland and first telecast February 16, 1982, The Wall earned a Peabody Award the following year. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This socially conscious drama is set during the Civil Rights Movement and chronicles the endeavors of a black minister to run for sheriff in a Southern county. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Although it remained a rotating component of The NBC Sunday Mystery Movie (along with Columbo, McCloud, Quincy, M.E., and Lanigan's Rabbi), McMillan and Wife underwent quite a few remarkable changes for its sixth and final season on the air. To begin with, the series' title has been shortened to McMillan, reflecting the departure of star Susan Saint James. It is explained that the actress' character, Sally McMillan, has been killed in a plane accident, leaving her husband, San Francisco police commissioner Stewart "Mac" McMillan, a widower. Evidently this tragedy had occurred quite some time before the beginning of season six, given that Mac is showing no signs of grief and has even begun seeing other women. Also missing is Nancy Walker as Mac's housekeeper Mildred; her replacement is Martha Raye, playing Mildred's sister Agatha. And while John Schuck is still on hand as Mac's police assistant Charles Enright, Charles has been promoted from sergeant to lieutenant, his customary duties taken over by Sgt. Steve Dimaggio, a new character played by Richard Gilliland. Likewise new to the series are Gloria Stroock as Mac's secretary Maggie, and Bill Quinn in the recurring role of Chief Paulsen. The first of the season's six 90-minute episodes is "All Bets Off," in which Mac tries to track down some diamonds stolen from his current girlfriend in Las Vegas. In "Dark Sunrise," Mac, presumed killed in an explosion, uses his "death" to cover his tracks while investigating the matter. "Phillip's Game" pits Mac against an egotistical hit man who brazenly announces his crimes before committing them. In "Coffee, Tea, or Cyanide?," Mac investigates as several passengers die mysteriously during a cross-country flight. "Affair of the Heart" finds Mac crossing swords with an attractive deputy DA (Stefanie Powers). And in the series' final episode, "Have You Heard About Vanessa?" Mac reconstructs the events leading up to the suicide of a model (Joanna Cameron) who seemed to have everything. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

As McMillan and Wife launched its fifth season, the series remained a rotating component of The NBC Sunday Mystery Movie, along with Columbo, McCloud, and McCoy. Rock Hudson and Susan Saint James reprise their familiar roles as San Francisco police commissioner "Mac" McMillan and his lovely wife Sally in six new episodes, each two hours in length. For starters, Jack Gilford plays a nonagenarian businessman who is targeted for assassination in "The Deadly Inheritance." Next up, the new wife of one of Mac's best friends drops dead on her wedding night in "Requiem for a Bride." In "Aftershock," an earthquakes reveals a dead body bricked up in the wall of the McMillan home. A hospitalized and heavily sedated Mac thinks he has witnessed a murder in "The Deadly Cure." In "Secrets for Sale," Sgt. Enright (John Schuck) quits the police force to get married in the midst of a major political scandal. Martha Raye makes her first series appearance as Agatha, sister of the McMillans' housekeeper, Mildred, in "Greed." And last but far from least, Naval reserve officer Mac returns to active duty to defend a lieutenant on a murder charge in "Point of Law." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Remaining a rotating component of The NBC Sunday Mystery Movie (along with Columbo, McCloud, and Hec Ramsey), the "domestic detective" series McMillan and Wife offered four new 90-minute episodes for its third season. The festivities begin as San Francisco police commissioner Stewart "Mac" McMillan (Rock Hudson) and his wife Sally (Susan Saint James) encounter intrigue during a trip to Scotland in "Death of a Monster...Birth of a Legend." Next on the docket, Sally and the McMillans' housekeeper, Mildred (Nancy Walker), are targeted by a Satan-worshipping cult in "The Devil, You Say." Then, Mac suspects that there's more to the suicide of a business executive than meets the eye in "Free Fall to Terror." And in "Reunion in Terror," someone is systematically bumping off the members of Mac's college football team. In addition to the above-listed episodes, season three of McMillan and Wife features a pair of two-hour episodes: "Man Without a Face" in which Mac tackles the murder of his old friend from military intelligence; and "Cross and Double Cross," featuring Rock Hudson in a dual role as Mac and his look-alike, a murderous mobster. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Although McMillan and Wife had been introduced as a two-hour TV movie, Once Upon a Dead Man, on September 17, 1971, the series proper did not get underway under 12 days later, as one of the rotating components (along with McCloud and Columbo) of The NBC Mystery Movie. Having long resisted any sort of TV-series commitments, Rock Hudson nonetheless looks quite at home in the role of San Francisco police commissioner Stewart "Mac" McMillan, as does Susan Saint James as Mac's insatiably curious young wife, Sally. In the first of the seven 90-minute season one episodes, "Murder in the Barrel," Sally has trouble convincing the cops that she has found a dead body in a barrel full of crockery while moving into the MacMillan's luxurious new home. The next episode, "The Easter Sunday Murder Case," involves Mac and Sally in a double kidnapping -- with one of the victims being a pampered pet dog! In "Husbands, Wives and Killers," the MacMillans vainly try to prevent the theft of a priceless necklace during a masquerade ball. A clue to a crime is found stuffed inside a football in "Death is a Seven-Point Favorite." Sally is targeted for extermination by a jewel thief who thinks she "knows too much" in "The Face of Murder." While housekeeper Mildred (Nancy Walker) is away, the McMillans are sealed inside their own booby-trapped house in "'Til Death Do Us Part." And in the season's final offering, "An Elementary Case of Murder," the McMillans are swept up into a homicide investigation by an old flame. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide