Lew Gallo Movies

When two testosterone-fueled firemen attempt to register as domestic partners in order to bypass the bureaucratic red tape preventing one of them from naming his own two children as his life-insurance beneficiaries, their low-key ruse turns into headline news in this quirky matrimonial comedy starring Adam Sandler and Kevin James. Chuck Levine (Sandler) and Larry Valentine (James) are two New York City firefighters whose longtime friendship has endured many a five-alarm fire. All that widower Larry wants is to ensure that his two children will be taken care of if anything should happen to him on the job, and all that single blaze-battler Chuck wants is to carry on with his carefree life of noncommitment. Having once rescued Larry from certain death in a particularly fearsome inferno, beholden Chuck feels forever indebted to his brave friend and has vowed to repay the favor when the time is right. When Larry discovers that the only means of circumventing the civic red tape that could throw his children's futures into jeopardy is to take Chuck as his lawfully wedded husband, his obligated pal reluctantly agrees to step up to the alter with the understanding that the arrangement will be a well-kept secret between themselves and the justice of the peace. A potentially fatal flaw in their presumably foolproof plan is soon revealed, however, when an overzealous bureaucrat decides to question Chuck and Larry's partnership. Subsequently forced to embark on a mandatory honeymoon and pose as starry-eyed newlyweds, Chuck and Larry quickly discover just how important it can be to stick by a friend in his or her time of need. Jessica Biel, Steve Buscemi, Ving Rhames, and Dan Aykroyd co-star in a comedy from The Benchwarmers director Dennis Dugan. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Based on the story of Antoinette Giancana, Susan Lucci plays a mobster's daughter who is trying to learn the truth of her father's shady dealings in this made-for-TV movie. Tony Curtis plays the boss, Sam Giancana. ~ John Bush, Rovi

Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer: More Than Murder was first telecast January 26, 1984, two days before the premiere of the Mike Hammer series proper. Stacy Keach stars as Spillane's bare-knuckled, chain-smoking private eye, with Lindsay Bloom costarring as his curvaceous secretary Velda. In More Than Murder, Mike's longtime friendly enemy, police captain Chambers (Don Stroud), is wounded during a drug-bust at a poker game. Circumstantial evidence suggests that Chambers himself was in cahoots with the dope dealers. It's up to Mike Hammer to get his longtime antagonist off the hook. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Alternately titled Lacy and the Mississippi Queen and Kate and the Mississippi Queen, this made-for-TV Western stars Kathleen Lloyd as cowgirl Kate Lacy and Debra Feuer as Kate's half-sister, female gunslinger Queenie. After their father is murdered, Kate and Queenie team up to track down the train robbers responsible for the killing. This leads to a part-time job for the girls as they work as detectives for the Union Pacific railroad, while tending their ranch in their off hours. The pilot for an unsold TV series, Lacy and the Mississippi Queen made its NBC debut on May 17, 1978. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Originally titled Giving Birth, Having Babies was the first of three pilot films for a TV series that eventually appeared under the title Julie Farr MD. In omnibus fashion, the film focuses in on four couples and their reactions to impending parenthood. Essentially, this is a feature-length "commercial" for the Lamaze method of natural childbirth. Adrienne Barbeau plays Lamaze-class supervisor Allie Duggin, while the mommies-to-be are portrayed by Karen Valentine (as tennis pro Beth Paterno), Jessica Walter (as middle-aged Sally McNamara), Linda Purl (as teenager Laura Gorman) and Vicki Lawrence (as unwed mother Grace Fontrell). Having Babies was originally telecast October 17, 1976. It was followed by Having Babies II in 1977, Having Babies III in 1978. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

James L. Brooks' Thursday's Game is a witty made-for-television comedy about two businessmen (Bob Newhart and Gene Wilder) who meet every Thursday night to play poker and discuss their professional and personal problems. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi

When the Jupiter 2 crashlands on an uncharted green planet, Will (Billy Mumy), Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris) and the Robot man the space pod for an exploratory mission. The little party comes across a variety of bizarre images, including what seems to be the rusty wreck of the Jupiter 2 and a huge statue built in commemoration of the Robot. As it turns out, the ship has been hurtled forward to the year 2270 AD, on a planet populated by descendants of the Robinson family--but this startling "explanation" turns out to be merely the prologue to an even more startling surprise. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

When the wife of Chaplain Craig Fletcher (Leslie Nielsen) is killed on an Army base, suspicion immediately falls upon PFC Byron Landy (Bruce Dern), a lifelong troublemaker and malcontent who has already beaten one murder rap. The angry locals demand immediate retribution against Landy, proof or no proof. It is up to Inspector Erskine (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) to defuse this volatile situation and to make certain that the actual murderer is brought to justice. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The first season of this World War II series -- which was based on the 1949 feature film starring Gregory Peck and Dean Jagger (who won the Oscar) -- starred Robert Lansing as Brigadier General Frank Savage (the role played by Peck in the movie), the commander of the 918th Heavy Bombardment Group, based at Archbury. That season hewed the most closely to the film in terms of characters, with Frank Overton in the recurring role of Adjutant Major Harvey Stovall (the Dean Jagger role), and, as regular, recurring characters, Lew Gallo as Major Cobb, Barney Phillips as Major Kaiser ("Doc Kaiser"), the group medical officer, John Larkin as Savage's commanding officer, Major General Wiley Crowe (later succeeded by John Zaremba as Major General Stoneman); and Paul Newland as his superior officer, Lieutenant General Pritchard. The series was based, like the movie, on the novel of the same name by Sy Bartlett and Beirne Lay, Jr. (who also wrote the screenplay), who were listed as creators of the program, and based their work on the real-life story of General Frank Armstrong, commander of the 306th Bomb Group. As one would expect, the series concentrated initially on airborne stories. The fact that the series was originally in black-and-white made it possible to use a large amount of actual World War II footage -- although, as with the original film, it was the men's lives on the ground that were the main substance of the scripts. As with most dramatic series of this era, faced with producing over 30+ episodes each season, the series' output was somewhat uneven, in the writing as well as the direction, though the acting was consistently good. To the viewer, the difficulty with the first season was that the scripts got a little repetitive early on -- one can wonder, for example, looking at the series four or five decades on, how many nests (or potential nests) of spies, and how many women with agendas of their own, would a combat officer such as Frank Savage cross paths with in real life?

The real problems with the first season were more internal, and mostly concerned the star, Robert Lansing, a method-trained actor with theatrical experience who was reputed to be very difficult to work with. Producer Quinn Martin apparently decided early on that his role might have to be written out and the actor replaced. In the very first episode, the writers introduced the character of Joseph Gallagher, the son of an Army Air Force lieutenant general, played by Paul Burke -- a leading man who had just come off of the series The Naked City -- initially as a captain. Gallagher reappears in the 24th episode as a major and squadron commander, setting the stage for his replacing Savage in the first episode of the second season. Officially, the reason that Lansing was leaving the series was a result of his lack of appeal to female viewers (though how many female viewers were watching a series such as this was questionable), and the fact that the producers wanted a younger man, though Burke was actually two years older than Lansing, but was a more conventionally handsome man and looked younger.

The series' first season is generally by fans as the best, despite the internal strains behind the scenes. The scripts delved into the dark side of the psyche, on the part of pilots, their commanders, and the people around them (including women); and if one could get past moments of incredulity, the suspense level in some of the stories was most bracing and effective. In "The Hours Before Dawn", for example -- a show that seems to have borrowed its title and part of its content from a Somerset Maugham wartime story -- Savage is the only man with details of a vital mission, and finds himself trapped during a German bombing raid in a house with a woman (Glynis Johns) who has retreated from all contact with the war or the outside world, and a downed German colonel (Fritz Weaver), who plans on capturing or killing Savage.

As a result of the fact that a lot of the drama was set on the ground, 12 O'Clock High was able to feature a much larger female presence than most World War II series of its era. This obviously pleased the sponsors and the network, though at times it also made the program seem a little too much like a soap opera for modern tastes. The series was successful enough to be renewed for a second season, but not without a lot of vast changes in store for the cast, more than was typical of television during this period. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

The unlikely duo of Steve McQueen and Jackie Gleason star in this military comedy-drama. Gleason is Master Sergeant Max Slaughter, a corpulent man perfectly content with his solitary life in the Army, where his room and board are paid for and free sodas are his for the taking. His comrade, the more ambitious Sergeant Eustis Clay (McQueen), looks forward to leaving the service and making a big success of himself in business. Nevertheless, Eustis worships the ground that the kindly Max walks on and introduces him to a pretty teenager, Bobby Jo Pepperdine (Tuesday Weld). This sets off the ire of Bobby Jo's would-be suitor Sergeant Fred Lenahan (Lew Gallo), a tough military policeman who's already got a bone to pick with Eustis, leading to a tragic turn of events for Eustis and Max. The script for Soldier in the Rain (1963) was co-written by Blake Edwards. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

Having successfully robbed a train shipment of gold bullion, four thieves, headed by Mr. Farwell (Oscar Beregi), decide to lay low until the heat is off -- for 100 years, to be exact. Farwell and his three cohorts -- DeCruz (Simon Oakland), Brooks (Lew Gallo), and Erbie (John Mitchum) -- repair to a cave, where they enter four glass cases and place themselves in suspended animation. Awakening a century later, Farwell and his partners figure that they can now enjoy their $1,000,000 booty. . .but they're wrong, dead wrong! First telecast April 21, 1961, "The Rip Van Winkle Caper" is a typical lesson in human nature from the pen of Twilight Zone series creator Rod Serling. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

First telecast January 22, 1960, this Twilight Zone episode was adapted by Rod Serling from the famous radio play by Lucille Fletcher. In the original radio version, the protagonist was a young man named Ronald Adams, played by Orson Welles. Deducing that TV viewers would be more emotionally affected by a woman in distress, Serling rewrote the main character as Nan Adams, with Inger Stevens filling the role. While making a cross-country motor trip, Nan is terrified by the repeated appearances of a shabby-looking hitchhiker (Leonard Strong) who shows up at every turn and who seems to be beckoning her to. . .what? Classic line: "I believe you're. . .going my way." Listen for Eleanor Audley, in the climactic telephone-call sequence -- she also provided the voice of the wicked queen in the Disney theatrical feature Sleeping Beauty. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Pork Chop Hill was based on the eyewitness essays of ex-soldier S. L. A. Marshall. The film is set during the Korean "police action." While diplomats argue pointlessly over the shape of the negotiation tables at Panmunjon, United Nations troops bleed and die. Lieutenant Gregory Peck leads a 135-man unit on the attack of the Chinese-held Pork Chop Hill. When reinforcements finally arrive, only 25 of Peck's men survive (and they aren't the usual survivors we've come to expect from earlier, cliché-ridden war films). Among the American troops are such dependable performers as Harry Guardino, Woody Strode, Rip Torn, Barry Atwater, George Peppard, Robert Blake and Martin Landau. Former cowboy-star Bob Steele also shows up briefly as an American general. According to director Lewis Milestone, Pork Chop Hill was cut by nearly twenty minutes because the wife of star Gregory Peck felt that her husband made his first entrance too late into the picture. True or not, the film does show signs of post-production tampering, with flashes of several excised scenes showing up under the main title credits. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi