Harry Morgan Movies

Walter Matthau, Stephanie Zimbalist, and Harry Morgan star in this made-for-television drama, in which a judge in a small town discovers that the skeletons in his family closet are aired for all to see after he's named as a prime suspect in the murder of his son-in-law. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Joseph Sargent's made-for-TV drama, set during World War II, stars Walter Matthau as an attorney coerced into defending a German POW who is accused of murdering the town physician (Barnard Hughes), Matthau's best friend. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

This classic episode adroitly utilizes footage from the 1949 theatrical film Strange Bargain--with three of that film's stars, Jeffrey Lynn, Martha Scott and Harry Morgan, reprising their roles in the "new" scenes. Released from prison after serving 30 years for the murder of his boss, Sam Wilson (Lynn) returns to his wife Georgia (Scott) and his son Rod (Art Hindle), who is now a police officer. Georgia and Rod prevail upon Jessica (Angela Lansbury) to help clear Sam's name, and to prove that someone else committed the murder. With the assistance of the original investigating detective, a man named Webb (Morgan), Jessica reconstructs the events leading up to Sam's arrest, with black-and-white "flashbacks" lifted from Strange Bargain illustrating how, three decades earlier, Sam had been offered $10,000 to make his boss' suicide look like murder for insurance purposes. One of the supporting roles is played by Debbie Zipp, who would later become a Murder, She Wrote semi-regular as Donna Mayberry, the fiancee of Jessica's nephew Grady Fletcher. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The TV detective series Blacke's Magic starred Hal Linden as dapper professional magician Alexander Blacke, and Harry Morgan as Alexander's con-man father Leonard. Together, Blacke and Blacke solved mysteries with the help of Alexander's prestidigatory skills and Leonard's flim-flammery. In the series' two hour pilot, the Blackes attend a magician's convention, where an old friend of Alexander's is murdered. All the magic tricks performed on the episode were real, requiring Hal Linden to acquire a few conjuring skills post-haste. The Blacke's Magic pilot aired on Sunday, January 5, 1986; the series itself premiered the following Wednesday. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Scriptwriters Robert Malcolm Young, Sue Grafton and Stephen Humphrey transposed the Agatha Christie story Sparkling Cyanide from its veddy British locale to the plush environs of Pasadena for this 1983 TV-movie adaptation. Leading character Anthony Andrews is still a Briton, mingling with the rich and famous. Seeking glamour, Andrews finds only depravity and death as several of the glitterati drop dead due to poisoned champagne. The motives are the oldest and most reliable: avarice and jealousy. Sparkling Cyanide was filmed at the same time as Caribbean Mystery, another Christie adaptation utilizing the same producer, director and scenarists. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

As the 11th season of M*A*S*H* got under way in the fall of 1982, everyone involved with the series knew it would be their last (the program had already lasted eight years longer than the actual Korean War!) Looking back, the cast and crew could take pride in the series' many accomplishments, not least of which was its making palatable and entertaining a number of hot-button issues that had previously been verboten on American network television. The series had also come a long way from its zany, iconoclastic, hit-or-miss "anything for a laugh" origins, maturing into a thoroughly credible blend of comedy, drama and tragedy (its credibility enhanced by the decision to complete eliminate a canned laughtrack), with fully rounded, three-dimensional characterizations. The fact that the series had managed to win eleven Emmy awards further served to enhance the participants' sense of achievement. Viewers were honestly saddened that their favorite series, which had long since transcended the boundaries of standard sitcomery to become a national institution, would cease production at the end of season 11. Perhaps because the faithful fans were determined to savor every final moment of the series' existence, M*A*S*H was propelled from the ninth most popular TV program of 1981-82 to number three in 1982-83, with the now-legendary 2 1/2 hour finale, "Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen," being seen by the largest audience ever to watch a single TV episode. Although this landmark episode would bring M*A*S*H to a poignant close, it was not quite the end of the story. Debuting September 26, 1983, the CBS sitcom AfterMASH detailed the further adventure of several M*A*S*H regulars, all hired by a Missouri VA hospital upon the Korean cease-fire. Carryovers from the original M*A*S*H included Harry Morgan as Sherman Potter, Jamie Farr as Max Klinger, William Christopher as Father Mulcahy, and a character that had been introduced in the penultimate M*A*S*H episode "As Time Goes By," Klinger's Korean-born wife Soon-Lee, played by Rosalind Chao. Suffering the ignominous fate of most such spinoffs, AfterMASH failed to live up to the standards of its distinguished predecessor, and was cancelled after only a season and a half on the air. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A nurse that Hawkeye (Alan Alda) once dated casually has died. Inasmuch as he is the only person at the 4077th who knew anything about the decedent, Hawk is called upon to deliver her eulogy. As he investigates the last few days of the departed nurse, Hawk is surprised to discover that she was far more emotionally involved with him than she ever let on. And on a somewhat lighter note, Klinger (Jamie Farr) tries to finagle Charles (David Ogden Stiers) into investing in another get-rich-quick scheme. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this telemovie, Ron Leibman plays Stan Rivkin, who, sure enough, is bounty hunter, though he operates in Manhattan rather than the wild west. Rivkin has a physically handicapped 12 year old son (Glenn Scarpelli), who is frequently left in the care of a kindly retired priest (Harry Morgan). The film follows Rivkin around as he takes on several low-paying and death-defying assignments. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Hawkeye (Alan Alda) is profoundly touched by a terminally ill GI (well played by a young Patrick Swayze) who is more concerned about the plight of his wounded pal. Unfortunately, the fact that Hawkeye can do nothing for the dying soldier exacts quite an emotional toll. All this occurs while a nervous Father Mulcahy (William Christopher) prepares for a visit from no-nonsense Cardinal Reardon (Ray Middleton). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The second of two attempts to revive the 1960s TV series The Wild, Wild West (the first was Wild Wild West Revisited), More Wild, Wild West was telecast October 7, 1980. Robert Conrad is back as 19th- century secret-agent James West, while Ross Martin returns to the role of "man of many faces" Artemus Gordon. The principal heavy, played with tongue firmly in cheek by Jonathan Winters, is a mad scientist who plans to create an army of invisible supermen. Victor Buono, who was special guest villain on the very first Wild Wild West episode in 1965, plays a supporting role; carried over from Wild Wild West revisited are Harry Morgan and Rene Auberjonois. Several networks evinced interest in More Wild, Wild West, but Ross Martin's death in 1981 ended all plans for a weekly series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this children's movie, a single executive enjoys her life on the fast track, but when she is talked into becoming a den mother to a rambunctious pack of Cub Scouts, her life is temporarily derailed. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Based on the best-selling memoirs of Lillian Rogers Parks, the NBC miniseries Backstairs at the White House traces over five decades of American political history as witnessed from the vantage point of the servants' quarters. Played by Tania Johnson as a teenager and by Leslie Uggams as an adult, Lillian Rogers Parks served for 52 years as a maidservant at the White House. Though crippled early on with polio, Lillian diligently and loyally stuck to her duties -- and her own rock-solid set of principles and ideals -- through eight highly different Presidential administrations, often (and occasionally reluctantly) acting as friend and confidante to the First Lady of the moment. The large and stellar cast included a number of top-rank film and TV actors, obviously having the time of their lives impersonating such presidents as William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson, Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, and Dwight D. Eisenhower, and their respective wives. Also in the cast were several African-American veterans from the landmark TV miniseries Roots. Earning 11 Emmy Award nominations, the nine-hour Backstairs at the White House was seen in five installments from January 29 to February 19, 1979. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide