Milton Frome Movies

Captains Courageous is Rudyard Kipling's story of a wealthy, spoiled teenager who matures into responsible manhood during an enforced voyage on a fishing schooner. The 1937 MGM version of the Kipling tale lowered the age of the protagonist to accommodate juvenile star Freddie Bartholomew, and re-shaped the plot so that the Portuguese fisherman Manuel, played by Spencer Tracy, would be the leading role. This 1977 TV-movie version wisely restores the full age of Harvey Cheyne (Jonathan Kahn), reiterating Kipling's point that it's never too late to steer a young man on the right path. The 1977 version also relegates Manuel (Ricardo Montalban) to the secondary position he held in the novel, strengthening the growing friendship and mutual respect between young Harvey and wise old captain Danko (Karl Malden). Filmed on location off the Maine coast, The TV version of Captains Courageous originally aired December 4, 1977. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

An aspiring actor leaves his home in Brooklyn for adulthood in Manhattan in Paul Mazursky's loosely autobiographical comedy-drama. In 1953, would-be thesp Larry Lapinsky (Lenny Baker) flees his hysterically clinging mother (Shelley Winters) for a $25-a-month (!!) apartment in bohemian Greenwich Village. Between Method-like acting classes, a movie audition (where he meets a posturing actor played by Jeff Goldblum), and work at a juice bar, Larry hangs out with a circle of archetypal Village eccentrics, including suicidal Anita (Lois Smith), womanizing poet Robert (Christopher Walken), and flamboyantly un-closeted homosexual Bernstein (Antonio Fargas), as he negotiates the pitfalls of love and sex with liberated girlfriend Sarah (Ellen Greene). The fallout over the group's ill-fated love affairs, and the Lapinskys' inopportune surprise visits, finally lead Larry to make peace with his past as he contemplates his future in Hollywood. Mazursky looks back to the 1950s as in such other 1970s films as American Graffiti, Grease, and TV's Happy Days, but his Greenwich Village life is less a time of lost pre-'60s innocence than a precursor of things to come. Sex, Larry jokes, may be serious, but it is also an omnipresent fact of life rather than something to be feared or repressed; love is the real problem. Even as Larry's friends strike various poses, they are all out to do their own thing as best they can. Critical response to Mazursky's nostalgia trip was mixed when the film was released, but the performances, particularly Winters, were admired. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi

The doctors and paramedics of Rampart are in a state of shock and sorrow when their beloved former head nurse Millie Eastman (Anne Seymour) tries to commit suicide. However, it looks as though Millie will find a new lease on life when she bonds with a troubled young paraplegic. The emergency roster includes a family suffering from carbon-monoxide poisoning, a man trapped under a truck full of combustible fuel, and a woman who has somehow become mummified in plastic. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this Disney film, Hank Cooper (Ed Asner) the owner of a losing professional football team, recruits Gus, a Yugoslavian soccer player, to his team. Even though Gus is a mule, he figures the animal can be taught to make field-goal kicks. Despite the outrage of his team, and sabotage efforts by Crankcase, Spinner and Gwymm (Tim Conway, Tom Bosley and Harold Gould), Gus the Mule kicks his team all the way to a championship. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

The Rampart police division swings into action after receiving a long-distance call from Omaha. A frantic woman reports that her husband, currently living in LA, has called her and threatened to commit suicide. As Officers Jim Reed (Kent McCord) and Pete Malloy (Martin Milner) search for the husband, they find an abandoned baby along the away. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

John (Randolph Mantooth) is determined to find out why Roy (Kevin Tighe) has had so much luck picking winning horses from the daily "dope sheets". Back on the job, the Squad 51 team tries to rescue a woman who has fallen into the lion cage at the zoo, a cop who has been wounded by a sniper, and a disco dancer who has collapsed in mid-dance. Then there's that wayward skateboarder who ends up in a cactus patch... ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In the police penal code, a "Misdemeanor 415" translates as "Disturbing the Peace"--and Officers Pete Malloy (Martin Milner) and Jim Reed (Kent McCord) have a doozy of a "415" on their hands. The two cops are summoned time and again to the home of an unhappily married couple (Jed Allan, Jean Allison), whose noisy arguments are driving everyone in their neighborhood crazy. It would be nice to report that Jim and Pete are able to convince the couple to calm down and patch up their differences...but the final scene of this episode yields tragically different results. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Overlooked when it first aired February 18, 1972, the made-for-TV Evil Roy Slade has gained a loyal and protective cult following in the past 20 years. The film was the second pilot for a never-sold TV western spoof created by Garry Marshall and Jerry Belson, Sheriff Who?. Actually, it was the second and third pilot, since Evil Roy Slade has been cobbled together from two hour-long films. John Astin is terrific in the title role, playing an outlaw so repulsive that, when he was orphaned and left stranded in the desert as a baby, even the wolves didn't want him! As an adult, Evil Roy Slade can't resist "going the extra mile" in his nastiness: while robbing a bank, he stops to pilfer a fountain pen chained to one of the desks, and the next shot shows Slade riding off into the sunset, dragging the desk behind him. Attempting to reform for the sake of pretty schoolmarm Betsy Potter (Pamela Austin), Slade simply cannot curb his crooked tendencies, so it's up to Dick Shawn as singing Sheriff Bing Bell ("Will somebody please answer that door?") to bring the criminal to justice. Shawn previously appeared in the original 1967 Sheriff Who? pilot as the "fastest interior decorator in the West"; in both films, he's almost unbearably funny. The Marshall/Belson script is full of hilarious running gags and throwaway jokes. Our favorite bit concerns railroad magnate Mickey Rooney's legendary stubby index finger: "They still sing about it around campfires at night," claims Rooney--and indeed, they do. The supporting cast includes such never-fail laughgetters as Milton Berle, Henry Gibson, Dom DeLuise and Edie Adams; also, keep a lookout for John Ritter and Penny Marshall in unbilled bits. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Brendan (Jerry Lewis) is an eccentric multimillionaire who is rejected for military service in this misfired comedy. Eager to help the Allies, he gathers a quartet of offbeat irregulars and sails to Italy to join the conflict. Brendan captures a Nazi general and masquerades as the enemy. When Allies arrive, he is mistaken for the real general. Jan Murray, Dack Rambo, John Wood and Steve Franklin help the inept but patriotic Brendan. Also appearing are Kaye Ballard, Neil Hamilton, and George Takei, all allumni of successful television programs from the late 1960s. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

A young widow with three children and a sheepdog marries a widowed man with a young daughter and a French poodle in this amusing comedy. Abby (Doris Day) is the owner of a lumberyard who falls for Jake (Brian Keith) when her sister Maxine (Pat Carroll) introduce the two at a party. The couple is initially reluctant and somewhat embarrassed over the blatant matchmaking attempt but meet later at an all-night store. The two marry and deal with constant canine and sassy sibling rivalries. Jake falls out of the family trailer on vacation, leading Abby to recruit a group of hippies to find her lost husband. Jamie Farr is the far out hippie, Barbara Hershey is Jake's daughter Stacey, comedian George Carlin plays Herbie Fleck, owner of a local hamburger stand, and Alice Ghostley is the harried housekeeper in this engaging romp. The Grass Roots provide some of the music in this feature. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

Jethro is impressed by the celebrated bullfighter El Magnifico (Miguel Landa). He is even more impressed by the fact that El Magnifico is surrounded by a throng of beautiful and adoring girls whereever he goes. Taking the bull by the horns, Jethro decides to become a matador himself, while the aforementioned El Magnifico begins a-courtin' Elly May. "The Matador" was originally telecast on February 22, 1967. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A tribe of Indians, led by the financially savvy Chief Running Wolf (Stanley Waxman), has laid claim to a huge chunk of the Clampetts' oil-rich property. As banker Drysdale tires to negotiate with the tribe, impressionable Granny prepares for an all-out Indian war -- just like the ones she's seen in the movies. This is the episode in which John Wayne made his well-publicized "surprise" appearance (complete with a burst of pre-recorded studio applause). "The Indians are Coming" originally aired on February 1, 1967. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Bernard Fox makes his first appearance in the role of eccentric warlock physician, Dr. Bombay. Unaware that Bombay is "bewitched," Darrin and Larry rush to market the good doctor's miracle cold pills. Not unexpectedly, the pills cause some truly bizarre side effects, which only Bombay can cure -- if he wants to, that is. Milton Frome appears as pharmaceutical manufacturer Mr. Hornbeck (hint to the episode's outcome: actor Frome was bald as an egg). Written by Paul Wayne and Ed Jurist, "There's Gold in Them Thar Pills" first aired on May 4, 1967, as the final episode of Bewitched's third season. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi